Senior Staff Application Technology Architect – Drone & UAV Applications - Chandler, United States
Originally posted 19 October 2026 by the employer.
About the role
This role serves as the technical leader for Drone and UAV applications, defining and driving end-to-end system architectures for UAV platforms across industrial, commercial, and defense markets. You will bridge customer requirements, ecosystem needs, aviation regulations, and semiconductor product engineering across MCUs, MPUs, SoCs, and power electronics.
What you'll do
- Define and own end-to-end system architectures for industrial and defense drone applications across flight control, mission computing, sensing, propulsion, power, connectivity, and ground-control interfaces. - Drive HW/SW partitioning across MCUs, MPUs/SoCs, AI accelerators, programmable logic, sensors, connectivity devices, power electronics, and actuators. - Architect solutions for flight control, sensor fusion, navigation, GNSS/RTK, positioning, obstacle detection, collision avoidance, and autonomous mission execution. - Specify compute and communication architectures for edge AI, computer vision, visual-inertial odometry, SLAM, telemetry, payload data, and remote identification. - Design power and propulsion architectures covering battery management, power conversion and distribution, motor control, energy optimization, and thermal management. - Ensure functional safety, reliability, cybersecurity, redundancy, fault containment, degraded-operation modes, and fail-safe behaviors are integrated into system architectures.
What you'll need
- Master’s or Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Computer Engineering, Robotics, Mechatronics, Systems Engineering, or a related field. - 8+ years of experience in drone, UAV, aerospace, robotics, autonomous-system, or embedded-system development with significant responsibility for system architecture and integration. - Proven track record as a System Architect, Chief Engineer, Technical Lead, or Senior Systems Engineer developing industrial or defense drone platforms. - Hands-on experience contributing to at least one UAV platform through architecture, development, system integration, verification, flight testing, and product deployment. - Deep understanding of UAV architectures including flight controllers, mission computers, avionics, propulsion, power systems, payloads, communication links, and ground-control systems. - Strong knowledge of embedded systems, MCUs, MPUs/SoCs, real-time software, embedded Linux, RTOS platforms, and heterogeneous computing architectures. - Experience in flight control, estimation, sensor fusion, navigation, GNSS/RTK, perception, and autonomy.
Nice to have
- Experience with PX4, ArduPilot, ROS 2, MAVLink, DDS, or comparable UAV and robotics software frameworks. - Familiarity with aviation safety practices, EASA or FAA UAV regulations, Remote ID, BVLOS operations, and standards such as DO-178C, DO-254, ARP4754A, or ARP4761. - Experience with edge AI, computer vision, SLAM, visual-inertial odometry, radar or LiDAR perception, and AI accelerator platforms. - Background in electric propulsion, motor control, battery management, power conversion, or power electronics for aerial systems. - Experience with cybersecurity, secure communications, GNSS resilience, anti-jamming, or system-level threat analysis. - Knowledge of simulation, model-based systems engineering, software-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop, and digital-twin environments. - Experience supporting third-party assessments, flight approvals, certification, or regulatory compliance activities.
Skills: UAV, drone, system architecture, HW/SW partitioning, flight control, sensor fusion
This role has been open 0 days — well below the 61-day median for Hardware Systems Engineering roles.
Hardware Systems Engineering · SOC Architecture
|
Open roles in category
103
|
Median days open
61 d
|
Median salary
$206k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Renesas Electronics | All employers we track in this specialty (103 roles · 26 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 4 | 103 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 122 | 6296 · 145 employers |
| Median days open | 0 d | 61 d (−61 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $206k |
Skills observed across this category: UAV, drone, system architecture, HW/SW partitioning, flight control, sensor fusion
Who's hiring in this category
- AMD · 30 open roles · median 61 d
- Qualcomm · 21 open roles · median 49 d
- NVIDIA · 15 open roles · median 75 d
- Intel Corporation · 6 open roles · median 48 d
- Mobileye · 5 open roles · median 28 d
- Apple · 3 open roles · median 20 d
How we counted: 103 open Hardware Systems Engineering (SOC Architecture) roles from 26 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 21 Oct 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there — it is counted in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family row. Figures refresh nightly.