Role details
WHO WE ARE:
Aurelius Systems is a VC-backed defense tech startup building autonomous, edge-deployed robotics systems using directed energy for counter-UAS.
We build laser weapons to shoot down drones.
We're a small team of ~10 engineers, former US military operators, and subject matter experts scaling America's directed energy dominance. The first cost effective, reliable and robust laser weapon system.
Our namesake isn't an accident. Marcus Aurelius wrote about doing the work in front of you, every day, without excuses. Henry Ford didn't wait for permission to reinvent manufacturing. That's how we operate; small team, unreasonable output, no hiding behind the unachievable.
In addition to our San Francisco lab/office, we opened our Detroit manufacturing hub and we field test weekly on our own 400-acre private range.
You'll own the architecture and performance of our full software stack.
Our system is a stack of complex subsystems working in concert: sensing, computer vision, ML inference, controls, fire control, C2, power, mechanical actuation. Every microsecond of latency is a drone that gets closer.
Every inefficient kernel is a target that gets away. Your job is to make sure the whole stack, not any one piece, runs as fast and as deterministically as physics allows.
The critical gap we're hiring for is real-time systems architecture at the hardware boundary. You need to understand how software execution translates into physical system behavior; how latency accumulates across CPU, GPU, memory, and I/O; how bandwidth limits affect sensor pipelines; and how architectural decisions upstream constrain what's achievable downstream. We need an engineer who thinks in terms of microseconds, memory bandwidth, cache behavior, and determinism, and who can make architectural calls that the rest of the team builds against.
This is a senior IC role with subteam lead scope. You'll set direction on kernel-level optimization, driver work, and latency architecture across fire control and C2. You won't own simulators or model orchestration. You will own whether the platform meets its latency budget.
At ~10 engineers you won't be a cog in a software org. You'll make architectural calls that go to the range. Tests either work or they don't, and it's up to you to iterate and improve.
Not a fit if: Your experience is purely web/cloud software, ML research that never deployed to hardware, or you primarily work in managed languages. We need someone who's fought real-time latency, sensor noise, and mechanical backlash at the kernel level.
BS/MS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field. PhD a plus but not required.
WHY JOIN AURELIUS SYSTEMS?
Core hours are Monday–Friday, 9 to 6. When we're sprinting toward a demo or field test, the team ramps up; nights, weekends, whatever it takes to ship.
When the sprint lands, we ramp down. We don't manufacture intensity for show. We go hard when the mission demands it, and we recover when it doesn't.
This role requires access to export-controlled information or items that require "U.S. Person" status. As defined by U.S. law, individuals who are any one of the following are considered to be a "U.S. Person": (1) U.S.
citizens, (2) legal permanent residents (a.k.a. green card holders), and (3) certain protected classes of asylees and refugees, as defined in 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3).
DON'T CHECK EVERY BOX?
Apply anyway. The kernel-level rewrite prompt above is the filter. If you can walk us through a meaningful rewrite with real numbers, we want to talk regardless of what your resume says.
Ready for the next step?
Location
San Francisco
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