Drone Jobs

• Bristol
• On-site
• £60,000 – £70,000 pa
• Senior · manages people
• Permanent

Lead software project teams developing flight control and autopilot simulation software, using model-based design in MATLAB and Simulink. Responsibilities span flight dynamics modelling, flight performance studies, requirements definition, code and model review, and testing, while coaching team members and supporting project scoping and estimation.

MATLAB · Simulink

• London
• Senior

Own the end-to-end development of bespoke controllers for UAS platforms, from conception and simulation through physical integration and flight-test iteration. Design and validate state estimation, navigation and guidance algorithms for contested environments, working closely with flight mechanics, aerodynamics and embedded teams.

MATLAB · Simulink · Python +8

• Munich - Berlin - London - Paris

Build and scale a GPU-based simulator that trains reinforcement-learning agents for air autonomy, modelling flight dynamics and sensing across thousands of parallel environments. Work spans sim-to-real transfer, domain randomisation and RL training tooling, at the intersection of AI, GPU computing and physics-based simulation, with room to grow into leadership.

CUDA · Taichi · NVIDIA Warp +3

• Witney
• Hybrid · 3 days in office
• £40,000 – £60,000 pa

Design and develop safety-critical embedded software for autonomous systems, building runtime assurance components and high-integrity code using SPARK Ada and related toolchains. Work spans software architecture for certifiable systems, DAL-A/DAL-B solutions, and integration with mission computers, flight control and safety monitoring. Minimum three days per week on site in Witney.

SPARK Ada · ROS · ROS2 +3

• London
• Hybrid
• Senior

Integrates autonomy software onto unmanned aircraft, owning pre-flight build, configuration and validation across onboard compute, sensors and control interfaces. Supports live flight tests with travel around 30-40% of the year, debugging embedded and real-time systems in lab and field, and analysing flight data with autonomy and GNC teams.

ROS · DDS · Linux +5

• London
• Hybrid
• Senior

Integrate autonomy software onto unmanned aircraft, owning build, configuration and validation of flight-ready systems across onboard compute, sensors and control interfaces. Support live flight tests with travel around 30-40% of the year, debugging embedded and autonomy stacks in lab and field, capturing and analysing flight data, and working with autonomy, GNC and test teams.

ROS · DDS · Hivemind +5

• Salisbury
• On-site
• £50,000 – £60,000 pa
• Mid-level
• Permanent

Develops, configures and tests Ardupilot-based flight control systems for UAV platforms, tuning flight behaviours in SITL and live flight, and integrating sensors such as GPS, cameras and LiDAR. Works within the Autopilot team on requirements capture, architectural design, peer reviews and documentation, using C++ and protocols including MAVLink, CAN, SPI, I2C, UDP and TCP.

Ardupilot · PX4 · MAVLink +7

• Hitchin
• On-site
• £35,000 – £44,000 pa

Hands-on role building, assembling and maintaining fixed-wing UAVs across R&D and production programmes, including airframe construction with balsa, composite repairs, and integration of propulsion, avionics and flight control systems. Involves testing, fault-finding and prototype development for target drone and counter-drone platforms in a workshop-based aerospace setting.

Orange Cube · Pixhawk · Mission Planner +1

• Swindon
• Hybrid · 3 days in office

Hands-on build role assembling, integrating and testing Unmanned Aerial System airframes and sub-systems, covering structural work such as bracketry, precision drilling and fastening plus avionics wiring, flight control and sensor installation. Also involves ground tests, fault diagnosis and completing certification and traceability records to ISO 9001/AS9100 standards within a manufacturing operations team.

GPS · RF · ISO 9001 +1

• Witney
• Hybrid · 3 days in office
• £50,000 – £60,000 pa
• Permanent

Defines verification strategies and develops test frameworks for safety-critical embedded software, delivering requirements-based V&V, traceability and certification evidence. Applies automated testing, fuzz testing, fault injection and Monte Carlo simulation, with exposure to SPARK Ada and formal methods in an autonomy-assurance team. Hybrid, minimum three days on-site in Witney.

SPARK Ada

• Ashford
• Permanent

Build, test, repair and disassemble unmanned aerial and surface target systems, including fibreglass repairs, engine tuning, fault diagnosis and payload preparation, while supporting launcher operations and target recovery. Based in Ashford but involving extensive international travel, often at short notice, to deliver training support for defence forces worldwide.

Banshee Target

• London
• Mid-level

Bridges product engineering and deployed operations for the Ghost unmanned air vehicle program, executing flight operations, field maintenance, and customer training. Acts as product SME advising on operational employment, running test and evaluation events, and performing root-cause analyses for air systems in austere, remote environments.

Python · MATLAB · VTOL

• London
• Mid-level

Bridges product engineering and deployed operations for the Altius program, executing flight operations, field maintenance and customer training. Deploys to austere locations to troubleshoot hardware, software and networking issues, run root-cause analyses and shape long-term sustainment of aerial systems.

Linux · Unix · JIRA +2

• Bristol
• Hybrid · 3 days in office
• £50,000 – £80,000 pa
• Mid-level
• Permanent

Develops onboard software for uncrewed aerial systems, spanning autopilots, autonomy, payloads and mission-critical subsystems. Works on existing aircraft and clean-sheet designs, taking code from concept and SIL/HIL simulation through to real-world flight testing, with C++ and/or Rust in embedded and real-time environments.

PX4 · ArduPilot · MAVLink +6

• Oakley
• Senior · manages people

Provides technical leadership across mechanical and aerospace development for unmanned systems, owning complex design tasks and mentoring engineers from concept through flight test and production. Involves CAD architecture in SolidWorks, FEA analysis, propulsion and payload integration, and supporting manufacturing, assembly and certification. Based in Bedford within BlueBear, a Saab company.

SolidWorks · CATIA · ANSYS +3