Pyka
About Pyka
Pyka’s goal is to provide society with a new form of safe, clean, and cost-effective transportation enabled by autonomous electric aviation. To get there, we’re taking a different approach than most. We're applying our technologies to every industry where autonomous electric aircraft can be useful, starting with the highest value and most dangerous jobs. In doing so, we're building game-changing products manufactured at scale, while perfecting the safety, reliability, and capabilities of our autonomy engine and electric propulsion systems.
We design, develop and manufacture an ecosystem of technologies including proprietary flight control software, avionics, high power density motors, motor controllers, batteries, and custom carbon‑fiber composite airframes. Today, we supply autonomous electric aircraft for cargo transport and crop protection to real‑world customers across four separate continents and have secured industry‑first regulatory approvals from the FAA. Our cargo aircraft enables remote connectivity, enhances express delivery networks, and ensures fast and reliable shipping of critical supplies to areas in need. Our crop protection aircraft offers agricultural service providers and farmers an autonomous tool to make aerial application safer, more precise, and less harmful to surrounding environments. Both vehicles are highly economical to operate, easy to deploy, and significantly reduce CO₂ emissions in their respective industries.
What you work on at Pyka makes people’s lives better now and brings the future of electric aviation one step closer each day.
Role Overview Pyka is looking for a Senior Embedded Software Engineer with deep technical curiosity and a passion for building the low‑level systems that power autonomous aircraft. In this role, you’ll design and maintain the embedded software that runs on our flight computers, auxiliary computers, and hardware‑in‑the‑loop (HIL) testing systems — the infrastructure that ensures our aircraft behave safely and reliably in the real world. You’ll work closely with electrical, avionics, systems, and flight control engineers to bring up new hardware, develop robust firmware architectures, and expand our automated HIL testing capabilities. If you’ve built embedded systems for robots, vehicles, or other real‑time machines, you’ll feel at home shaping the foundation that every Pyka aircraft depends on. If you’re excited about this role but don’t meet every single requirement, we still encourage you to apply — we’d love to meet people who bring passion, curiosity, and the ability to grow into new challenges.
Responsibilities
Own the full firmware lifecycle for new flight and auxiliary computers — from board bring‑up and driver development to integration, testing, and flight‑ready release
Maintain and develop Pyka’s hardware‑in‑the‑loop (HIL) testing environment, enabling automated validation of flight‑critical systems
Implement drivers for off‑the‑shelf and custom sensors (I²C, SPI, CAN, UART/serial, etc.)
Bring up new hardware platforms, including bootloaders, board initialization, hardware abstraction layers, and diagnostics
Collaborate with cross‑disciplinary teams to define interfaces, requirements, and validation plans
Investigate and resolve hardware/software interaction issues across microcontrollers, sensors, and embedded Linux systems
Required Qualifications
5+ years of experience developing embedded software or firmware for real‑time or hardware‑integrated systems
Strong proficiency in C/C++ and experience with microcontrollers and embedded Linux (e.g., BalenaOS)
Comfortable implementing sensor and peripheral drivers (I²C, SPI, CAN, UART, ethernet)
Comfortable with git and modern collaborative software development workflows
Able to independently own complex, cross‑disciplinary engineering projects
Preferred Qualifications
Experience with FPGAs or HDL development
Experience with electric motor controllers or motor control firmware
Familiarity with hardware‑in‑the‑loop testing and embedded automated test frameworks
We understand that candidates bring different strengths and experiences, and you don’t need to meet every qualification to be considered. If this role excites you, we’d love to learn more about you. You may be a great fit even if your background doesn’t align perfectly with the list
Compensation & Benefits
166,000‑200,000 per year base salary + equity. Compensation will vary depending on location, job‑related knowledge, skills, and experience. Salary ranges are subject to change
Employer‑sponsored health, dental and vision insurance
SA with employer matching
401(k)
Paid holidays, generous PTO, and additional unpaid time off
Voluntary short‑term disability, long‑term disability, and life insurance
Pre‑tax commuter benefits
Free catered lunch and plenty of snacks
Export Control Requirements This position requires access to technology, software and other information that is subject to governmental access control restrictions, due to export controls. Employment in this position is conditioned on the continued availability of government authorization to authorize release of such items, to the extent required, including without limitation an export license, or other documentation required to establish authorization to receive access to such items. Company may delay commencement of employment, rescind an offer of employment, terminate employment, and/or may modify job responsibilities, compensation, benefits, and/or access to Company facilities and information systems, as Company deems appropriate, in order to ensure compliance with applicable government access control restrictions.
Recruiting Policy We do not work with external recruiters; if you are an external recruiter, please do not reach out.
AI in Hiring We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans.
Seniority level Not Applicable
Employment type Full‑time
Job function Engineering and Information Technology
Industries Transportation, Logistics, Supply Chain and Storage
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We design, develop and manufacture an ecosystem of technologies including proprietary flight control software, avionics, high power density motors, motor controllers, batteries, and custom carbon‑fiber composite airframes. Today, we supply autonomous electric aircraft for cargo transport and crop protection to real‑world customers across four separate continents and have secured industry‑first regulatory approvals from the FAA. Our cargo aircraft enables remote connectivity, enhances express delivery networks, and ensures fast and reliable shipping of critical supplies to areas in need. Our crop protection aircraft offers agricultural service providers and farmers an autonomous tool to make aerial application safer, more precise, and less harmful to surrounding environments. Both vehicles are highly economical to operate, easy to deploy, and significantly reduce CO₂ emissions in their respective industries.
What you work on at Pyka makes people’s lives better now and brings the future of electric aviation one step closer each day.
Role Overview Pyka is looking for a Senior Embedded Software Engineer with deep technical curiosity and a passion for building the low‑level systems that power autonomous aircraft. In this role, you’ll design and maintain the embedded software that runs on our flight computers, auxiliary computers, and hardware‑in‑the‑loop (HIL) testing systems — the infrastructure that ensures our aircraft behave safely and reliably in the real world. You’ll work closely with electrical, avionics, systems, and flight control engineers to bring up new hardware, develop robust firmware architectures, and expand our automated HIL testing capabilities. If you’ve built embedded systems for robots, vehicles, or other real‑time machines, you’ll feel at home shaping the foundation that every Pyka aircraft depends on. If you’re excited about this role but don’t meet every single requirement, we still encourage you to apply — we’d love to meet people who bring passion, curiosity, and the ability to grow into new challenges.
Responsibilities
Own the full firmware lifecycle for new flight and auxiliary computers — from board bring‑up and driver development to integration, testing, and flight‑ready release
Maintain and develop Pyka’s hardware‑in‑the‑loop (HIL) testing environment, enabling automated validation of flight‑critical systems
Implement drivers for off‑the‑shelf and custom sensors (I²C, SPI, CAN, UART/serial, etc.)
Bring up new hardware platforms, including bootloaders, board initialization, hardware abstraction layers, and diagnostics
Collaborate with cross‑disciplinary teams to define interfaces, requirements, and validation plans
Investigate and resolve hardware/software interaction issues across microcontrollers, sensors, and embedded Linux systems
Required Qualifications
5+ years of experience developing embedded software or firmware for real‑time or hardware‑integrated systems
Strong proficiency in C/C++ and experience with microcontrollers and embedded Linux (e.g., BalenaOS)
Comfortable implementing sensor and peripheral drivers (I²C, SPI, CAN, UART, ethernet)
Comfortable with git and modern collaborative software development workflows
Able to independently own complex, cross‑disciplinary engineering projects
Preferred Qualifications
Experience with FPGAs or HDL development
Experience with electric motor controllers or motor control firmware
Familiarity with hardware‑in‑the‑loop testing and embedded automated test frameworks
We understand that candidates bring different strengths and experiences, and you don’t need to meet every qualification to be considered. If this role excites you, we’d love to learn more about you. You may be a great fit even if your background doesn’t align perfectly with the list
Compensation & Benefits
166,000‑200,000 per year base salary + equity. Compensation will vary depending on location, job‑related knowledge, skills, and experience. Salary ranges are subject to change
Employer‑sponsored health, dental and vision insurance
SA with employer matching
401(k)
Paid holidays, generous PTO, and additional unpaid time off
Voluntary short‑term disability, long‑term disability, and life insurance
Pre‑tax commuter benefits
Free catered lunch and plenty of snacks
Export Control Requirements This position requires access to technology, software and other information that is subject to governmental access control restrictions, due to export controls. Employment in this position is conditioned on the continued availability of government authorization to authorize release of such items, to the extent required, including without limitation an export license, or other documentation required to establish authorization to receive access to such items. Company may delay commencement of employment, rescind an offer of employment, terminate employment, and/or may modify job responsibilities, compensation, benefits, and/or access to Company facilities and information systems, as Company deems appropriate, in order to ensure compliance with applicable government access control restrictions.
Recruiting Policy We do not work with external recruiters; if you are an external recruiter, please do not reach out.
AI in Hiring We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans.
Seniority level Not Applicable
Employment type Full‑time
Job function Engineering and Information Technology
Industries Transportation, Logistics, Supply Chain and Storage
#J-18808-Ljbffr