Principal TPM, Drone & Autonomy Software

Key Responsibilities:

• Own end-to-end execution of device software and autonomy programs spanning embedded/firmware, on-device services, perception, navigation, controls, mission logic, test, and release engineering.
• Drive the week-to-week release cadence for deployed devices, including planning, readiness, rollout coordination, and post-release follow-up for OTA updates.
• Coordinate cross-team release scope and sequencing across device software and autonomy (including perception, SLAM/VIO, guidance, and control subsystems), ensuring clear dependencies, interfaces, and integration timelines.
• Partner closely with hardware engineering and product teams to align device software deliverables with new hardware releases (EVT/DVT/PVT milestones as needed).
• Lead release readiness reviews: quality gates, test coverage, performance/regression expectations, rollback plans, and operational comms.
• Ensure tight collaboration with QA, flight test, and field stakeholders to validate software and autonomy features across simulation, hardware-in-the-loop (HIL),and real-world flight conditions.
• Establish and continuously improve program management processes across both device software and autonomy: release planning, change control, simulation and validation workflows, incident learnings, and metrics.
• Provide clear, concise status reporting to engineering leadership, surfacing risks early and driving tradeoffs across quality, schedule, and scope.
• Drive planning and delivery of autonomy features and capabilities, including localization, mapping, path planning, obstacle avoidance, and intelligent mission behaviors.
• Manage cross-cutting technical dependencies between autonomy subsystems (perception, navigation, controls) and the device software platform, proactively identifying integration risks and resolving blockers.
• Track and communicate program health across multiple parallel development threads, balancing new capability development, safety and reliability improvements, and integration into production releases.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Engineering (CS, EE, CE, Robotics, Aerospace, Systems, or related) or equivalent practical experience.
• 7+ years of technical program management experience delivering embedded/device software or autonomy/robotics software for hardware products (robotics/UAVs/aerospace/safety-critical strongly preferred).
• Proven track record coordinating release trains and shipping updates to real-world deployed devices (e.g., OTA, staged rollouts).
• Strong technical fluency across embedded systems and autonomy: firmware/software boundaries, hardware-software interfaces, perception/navigation/controls pipelines, performance constraints, logging/telemetry, and validation strategies.
• Excellent cross-functional leadership skills with ability to align engineering, autonomy, QA, hardware, and operations around a single release plan.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience with complex hardware/software mission-critical systems.
• Familiarity with embedded Linux, RTOS, and common device update mechanisms.
• Experience managing hardware/software co-development schedules across EVT/DVT/PVT and production ramp.
• Strong understanding of CI/CD for embedded software and autonomy, including automated test infrastructure, simulation pipelines, and fleet health metrics.
• Familiarity with autonomy or robotics concepts such as SLAM/VIO, GNSS/INS fusion, path planning, obstacle avoidance, or flight controls.
• Experience managing programs involving simulation, hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing, or field validation of autonomous systems.
• Understanding of fault-tolerant or safety-critical system design, redundancy strategies, and UAV flight safety requirements.
• Startup experience: high ownership, comfort with ambiguity, and bias for action.

BRINC Culture Values: