Senior SDK Engineer

📋 Description

• • **Revolutionize Defense Technology:** Join Firestorm, a dynamic VC-backed company at the forefront of defense innovation, as a Senior SDK Engineer. We are on a mission to democratize deterrence by developing cost-efficient, mission-adaptable aerial vehicles and cutting-edge technologies that empower U.S. ally nations. By challenging traditional defense procurement models, we deliver world-class capabilities at a fraction of the cost, making advanced defense solutions accessible to a broader range of partners.
• • **Shape the Future of Developer Integration:** As a Senior SDK Engineer, you will play a pivotal role in shaping SparkSDK, the essential toolkit that enables developers to seamlessly integrate vehicle payloads, sensors, and data links into the Firestorm ecosystem. You will report directly to the SparkSDK lead and collaborate closely with our platform, autonomy, avionics, and applications teams to build a robust, secure, and exceptionally developer-friendly SDK that underpins real-world defense missions.
• • **Drive Core SDK Development:** This is a high-impact, hands-on engineering role focused on the design and delivery of a modular, cross-platform SDK. You will architect and implement a modern C++ core, ensuring clean APIs, strong versioning guarantees, and first-class language wrappers through Foreign Function Interfaces (FFIs). Your work will enable integrators to rapidly connect to critical Firestorm applications and services, including WarRoom, application gateways, vehicle onboard services, and ground control software.
• • **Enable Multi-Language Interoperability:** A key aspect of this role involves exposing the C++ core to a variety of languages such as C, Java, Python, and C#. You will implement and maintain FFIs using technologies like C ABI P/Invoke, JNI/JNA, pybind11/cffi, and C# P/Invoke Source Generators. Experience with Rust FFI is considered a strong bonus, further expanding the reach and usability of our SDK.
• • **Ensure Robust API Design and Versioning:** You will be responsible for defining and maintaining clean, versioned APIs, adhering to SemVer principles and establishing a clear deprecation strategy. This ensures stability and predictability for our developers. You will also manage the delivery of SDK packages, installers, and artifacts across multiple operating systems including Linux, Windows, and Android, utilizing formats like deb, rpm, AppImage, MSI, MSIX, and AAR/APK add-ons.
• • **Integrate Critical Communication and Data Protocols:** Your responsibilities will include integrating communication and payload protocols, defining data models using Interface Definition Languages (IDLs) such as Protobuf or FlatBuffers, and implementing adapters to EmberCore and our message middleware. This ensures seamless data flow and interoperability within the Firestorm ecosystem.
• • **Champion the Developer Experience:** You will own the developer experience, creating comprehensive resources such as code samples, quickstarts, idiomatic language wrappers, well-defined error models, and robust logging and telemetry hooks. Clear, intuitive documentation will be paramount to making integration fast and straightforward for our partners.
• • **Engineer for Mission-Critical Performance:** This role demands a focus on real-time and mission-critical system requirements. You will engineer for deterministic behavior, implement effective back-pressure mechanisms, optimize for zero-copy data paths, ensure bounded latencies, and design for graceful degradation on CPU and GPU-constrained hardware.
• • **Prioritize Security by Design:** Security is paramount in defense. You will engineer for security by default, employing memory-safe patterns, implementing least-privilege design principles, integrating secure transport mechanisms (e.g., OpenSSL, libsodium), managing key material securely, and ensuring supply-chain integrity for all third-party dependencies.
• • **Build Reliable CI/CD Pipelines:** You will contribute to building and maintaining reliable Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines. This includes managing cross-platform builds using tools like CMake and Conan/vcpkg, implementing automated unit and integration tests (e.g., Catch2, GoogleTest, pytest, JUnit, NUnit), incorporating fuzzing and sanitizers, and validating code generation processes.
• • **Collaborate Across Teams and with Partners:** Foster strong collaboration with internal teams and external partners to gather requirements, refine APIs, and provide support for field integrations. You will also actively contribute to platform-wide architecture and roadmap discussions, influencing the strategic direction of Firestorm's technology.
• • **Enhance Operability and Support:** Contribute to the operability of the SDK by developing diagnostics, tracing capabilities, metrics collection, compatibility matrices, and upgrade playbooks to support our customers in the field effectively.
• • **Contribute to a Culture of Excellence:** As a senior member of the team, you will have opportunities to mentor peers, conduct thorough code reviews, and champion modern C++ API best practices, contributing to the overall technical growth and excellence of the software team.
• • **Travel and Work Environment:** This role offers flexibility, with options for remote work or on-site presence at our San Diego, CA headquarters. Relocation assistance is available. You will be expected to travel up to 15% domestically within a calendar year to support critical projects and collaborations.