We use essential cookies

Please Accept our Privacy Policy

Drone Engineer

Modern Intelligence

Austin, TX • $100,000 to $125,000 / yr • 10/11/2026

Engineering , Professional , Skilled & Trades , Manufacturing

Job Description

Job Description

Artificial intelligence is changing war - making decisions in combat quicker and more accurate, while enabling information to be shared more rapidly across both America’s and her adversaries’ militaries.Modern Intelligence builds Sovereign, the first defense-purpose foundation AI for unmanned systems, to be the standard battlefield AI on every Western unmanned system. Today, Sovereign allows drones as varied as unmanned vessels on water to backpack attack quadcopters to see, decide, and act even when jammed. We believe the responsibility of reliably and ethically building lethally autonomous AI is immense to our service members, the American people, and civilians everywhere.

Modern Intelligence has worked with partners across the Department of War including the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, Special Operations Command (SOCOM), the Office of the Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering, and countless unmanned systems hardware companies.

We have raised more than $22M in venture capital from Exponential, Oxford Funds, Bedrock, Vine Ventures, Contrary, Air Street, Caffeinated, Champion Hill, Swell, Myelin, and others.

Details

We are looking for someone who loves building and flying drones. You will be working with many many drones from a wide variety of companies. You will be responsible for keeping a highly heterogeneous fleet of drones up and running, while also playing a key role in integrating and evaluating our autonomy software on new platforms. We expect you to solve any problem that comes up in the drone’s flight controller, the electrical systems, or any physical problem.

We are working with the job title of Drone Engineer, but we are open to using other titles that may be more suitable to the candidate: e.g. Aerospace Engineer (with appropriate background), Mechanical Engineer, Electrical Engineer, etc.

Requirements
  • Experience with both fixed wing and copter style drones.
  • Direct experience with ArduPilot or Betaflight.
  • Willingness to relocate to Austin, Texas.
  • Willingness to travel.
  • Must be a U.S. person (U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or other protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3)). This role works on export-controlled technology.
Preferred Qualifications
  • Experience with both ArduPilot and Betaflight, including ELRS/CRSF radio links.
  • Experience with less common drone configurations such as tail sitters, VTOL, etc.
  • Experience with UGVs and USVs.
  • Has built their own drones.
  • Experience with CAD and 3D printing.
  • Degree in one of: Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering (or equivalent), or Computer Science.
Nice to have
  • Experience with PX4.
  • Experience with autonomy.
  • Willingness to travel to Ukraine.
Compensation Specifics
  • Final offer depends on demonstrated depth in a systems language and how much of the stack you can pick up quickly.
  • Equity is granted on top of base for every full-time role.

Benefits
  • Full medical for employee and family
  • Full dental and vision for employee and partial coverage for your dependents.
  • Generous and flexible PTO
  • Paid Holidays: All federal holidays + last two weeks of the calendar year
  • Paid Parental Leave: 12 weeks

We are investing heavily in increasing our ability to fly, test, integrate with, and maintain drones from a wide array of different drone vendors. Although we have experience spread around our company, aside from a pilot, this is the first role we are hiring with this focus.

Strong candidates will have an opportunity to not only shape, but potentially own the team that owns all of our drones and drone development.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.