Senior GNC Engineer / UAV Integration Lead

About Vernius
 

Vernius Systems is a U.S. defense technology company developing compact radar systems for autonomous drone interception.

We are building an engineering team in Kyiv to integrate our radar technology with Ukrainian interceptor platforms, work directly with local airframe partners, and conduct flight testing in Ukraine.

We are looking for a highly experienced GNC engineer who can take ownership of interceptor integration in Ukraine and become the technical point person for the local team.

What you’ll do

• Develop and modify guidance, navigation, and control firmware for interceptor UAVs.
• Integrate Vernius radar systems with existing interceptor flight-control stacks.
• Work with ArduPilot, Betaflight, PX4, or custom autopilot systems.
• Develop and tune guidance and flight-control logic for high-speed UAV interception.
• Integrate radar tracking data into interceptor guidance systems.
• Analyze flight telemetry and debug guidance, control, and integration issues.
• Plan and conduct flight tests together with Ukrainian interceptor manufacturers.
• Work directly with airframe partners to integrate Vernius systems into their platforms.
• Diagnose problems across the full interceptor stack: sensors, firmware, flight controller, communications, airframe, and guidance.
• Coordinate technical integration in Ukraine when the CEO is not on-site.
• Work closely with the FPV/CAD engineer during prototyping and flight testing.

• Help shape the architecture and technical direction of Vernius integrations in Ukraine.

   

What we’re looking for

• Hands-on experience developing autopilot, GNC, or flight-control systems for UAVs, autonomous aircraft, or missiles.
• Strong understanding of guidance, navigation, flight dynamics, and control systems.
• Production-level C/C++ experience.
• Practical experience with at least one of:
  • ArduPilot
  • Betaflight
  • PX4
  • custom UAV autopilot systems
• Experience integrating and debugging sensors and flight-control hardware.
• Experience analyzing real flight logs and telemetry.
• Hands-on flight-testing experience.
• Strong understanding of the UAV stack end-to-end.
• Ability to solve system-level problems rather than working only within one software component.
• Ability to communicate directly with the U.S. engineering team in English.
   

English

• B2 or higher, sufficient for direct technical communication with the U.S. engineering team.
• You should be comfortable discussing technical decisions, explaining problems, participating in engineering calls, and reading/writing technical documentation in English.
   

Strong advantages

• Experience with interceptor UAVs or other high-speed autonomous aircraft.
• Experience developing an autopilot from the ground up.
• Missile guidance or terminal guidance experience.
• Sensor fusion / state estimation.
• EKF/Kalman filtering.
• MAVLink.
• SITL/HIL simulation.
• Radar or computer-vision guidance.
• Experience working directly with Ukrainian defense manufacturers or military units.
• Previous technical leadership or system ownership.
   

Who this role is for

We are not looking only for a strong embedded developer or control-theory specialist.

The ideal candidate has built real autonomous aircraft systems, taken them into the field, analyzed failures, modified the software or hardware, and iterated until the system worked reliably.

You should be comfortable understanding the entire chain from sensor input to guidance logic, flight controller, actuators, airframe behavior, and real-world flight performance.

This person will have significant technical ownership and can grow into the technical lead for Vernius’s Ukrainian engineering team.