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Senior Engineering Manager, Device Platform Middleware

Skydio· R&D
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Hybrid (San Mateo, California, United States)$230k - $303kFull-timePosted 2mo ago

About the role

Hands-on engineering manager leading a small middleware team that builds on-device services and abstractions between hardware platform and autonomy stack for Skydio’s drone platforms (X10, R10, F10) with a focus on reliability, performance, and cross-team collaboration.

Responsibilities

  • Lead, grow, and retain a team of software engineers — running 1:1s, setting expectations, giving direct feedback, and developing engineers at every level.
  • Own the team's roadmap and delivery: set technical direction, break down ambiguous problems, and make tradeoffs to keep the team shipping reliably.
  • Stay hands-on. Design and implement high-quality software systems that run on our hardware products and developer workstations, and remain a credible technical voice in reviews and architecture decisions.
  • Build analytics tools to monitor services and identify, architect, and implement projects ensuring smooth customer experiences and high reliability.
  • Identify and lead internal cross-team software projects that substantially improve customer experience (internal and external).
  • Take ownership of internal services from concept through deployment and monitoring.
  • Partner with Computer Vision, State Estimation, Fleet Management, Embedded and Product teams to align priorities and unblock work across organizational boundaries.
  • Recruit and hire — build the interview loop, sell candidates on the mission, and raise the bar with every addition to the team.

Qualifications

  • 8+ years of professional software engineering experience.
  • 3+ years of direct people management experience — ownership of headcount, performance, and career growth for a team of engineers.
  • Hands-on manager who reads and writes code and is comfortable in design reviews and architecture decisions.
  • Proficiency in Python and/or C++, with experience in a Linux environment.
  • Experience designing features for operating systems in resource-constrained environments (compute and memory).
  • Experience coordinating and leading improvements to systems with significant organizational usage and impact.
  • Experience building software for systems with complex hardware in the loop (e.g., drones, unmanned vehicles, robotics) and understanding changes when bits move physical parts.
  • Ability to thrive in fast-moving, process-light environments, with strong stakeholder management.

Skills

Required:Leadership and people managementSystem design and architecturePythonC++Linux

Benefits

  • Paid vacation time
  • Sick leave
  • Holiday pay
  • 401K savings plan
  • Group health insurance plans
  • Relocation assistance may be provided for eligible roles
Last updated Oct 1, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
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About Skydio

A family of flying robots.

AI-powered autonomous drones for Drone as First Responder (DFR), critical infrastructure inspection, tactical ISR, site security, surveying and mapping

DronesAutonomous SystemsInspectionSecurityMappingPublic SafetyNational Security
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