Embedded Software Engineer
- Software
- Rehovot, Israel
- Full-time
Why this role exists
At AIRLIFT One, low noise is not a property of the airframe alone — it is a property of how the vehicle is flown, millisecond by millisecond. The vehicle's proprietary lift system only delivers its acoustic advantage when flight software commands it with precise timing, tight rate control, and deterministic execution of acoustically shaped flight profiles. This role exists to build that software: the hard-real-time code that turns an acoustic strategy into commands an aircraft can actually fly, and that a certification authority can actually trust.
What you'll own
- Design and implement safety-critical flight software in modern C and C++ on a hard-real-time RTOS, from driver level to application logic.
- Implement the execution layer for acoustically shaped flight profiles, guaranteeing deterministic timing and jitter budgets that the acoustics team can bank on.
- Build and maintain hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test benches that exercise flight software against simulated vehicle dynamics, sensors, and actuation before anything flies.
- Define and document software requirements, architecture, and verification evidence consistent with DO-178C objectives, working toward a certifiable baseline from day one.
- Develop board support packages, bus interfaces (CAN, serial, deterministic Ethernet), and health-monitoring logic for flight control and actuation computers.
- Profile and optimize worst-case execution time, memory usage, and task scheduling on resource-constrained flight hardware.
- Support ground and flight test campaigns: instrument the software, analyze telemetry and timing logs, and close the loop on anomalies within days, not quarters.
- Conduct and participate in rigorous code and design reviews, raising the bar for a small team whose code flies the aircraft.
What you bring
- B.Sc. or M.Sc. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or Electrical Engineering, or equivalent demonstrated depth.
- 5+ years building embedded software in C and modern C++ (C++14 or later) for real-time systems.
- Hands-on experience with a real-time operating system (e.g., FreeRTOS, VxWorks, Zephyr, or an ARINC 653 environment) including task design, scheduling, and interrupt handling.
- Solid grasp of real-time fundamentals: determinism, priority inversion, worst-case execution time, and memory management without dynamic allocation.
- Experience bringing up and debugging software on real hardware — microcontrollers or embedded SoCs, JTAG/SWD debuggers, oscilloscopes, and logic analyzers.
- Working knowledge of safety-critical development practices: requirements traceability, structural coverage, static analysis, and coding standards such as MISRA C/C++.
- Experience with hardware-in-the-loop or processor-in-the-loop testing of control software.
- Proficiency in Python for tooling, test automation, and telemetry analysis.
Even better if
- Direct DO-178C experience, ideally producing certification artifacts at DAL A or B, or familiarity with ARP4754A system development processes.
- Prior work on eVTOL, UAV, or manned aircraft flight control software, or on drive and actuation control loops.
- Experience generating and integrating production code from MATLAB/Simulink models.
- Track record at an early-stage company: shipping under ambiguity, owning problems outside your job title, and moving at flight-test pace.
- Exposure to acoustics, vibration, or signal processing — enough to hold a real conversation with the engineers defining what 'quiet' means.
Why this matters to quiet flight
Every published study and every community backlash says the same thing: urban aviation lives or dies on noise, and noise is decided in the details of how the vehicle is commanded. If your code misses a timing budget, the acoustic signature degrades and the entire premise of the company weakens; if it holds, an aircraft flies over a neighborhood and nobody looks up. Few embedded engineers ever get a loop that tight between their scheduler and their company's reason to exist.
Life at AIRLIFT One
Small team, total ownership
No layers between you and the aircraft. You own your domain end-to-end — analysis, hardware, test — and your decisions fly.
Aviation breathing culture
Work alongside aviation geeks—engineers, innovators, and builders who are passionate about shaping the future of flight.
Stealth, not isolation
We don't publish yet, but we argue, test, and review relentlessly inside. Intellectual honesty is a daily practice, not a poster.
Built in Rehovot
We work on-site, around the hardware, in one of Israel's deepest engineering talent pools.
Apply
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