Software Engineer - ATAS - Smyrna, GA - Open Rank

About the role

The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit, applied research division of the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech). Founded in 1934, GTRI has grown to more than 2,900 employees, supporting eight laboratories in over 20 locations around the country and performing more than $940 million of problem-solving research annually for government and industry.

The GTRI Robotics and Autonomous Systems Division (RASD) is a growing division focused on robotics and collaborative, autonomous systems. RASD is looking for skilled software engineers to build and develop a Ground Control Station (GCS) Command and Control (C2) system for large, distributed, real-time unmanned systems. You will contribute to the design and implementation of control and interface systems used by field operators. Your work will span multiple technical domains as you identify user needs and develop solutions to improve reliability, scalability, and ease of use.

Ideal candidates are self-motivated, collaborative problem-solvers who find satisfaction in creating tools that amplify the effectiveness of other engineers.

Responsibilities

• Perform software development, debugging, modification, enhancement, and documentation.
• Design, test, and develop computer software in order to meet program requirements.
• Develop and maintain kernel and user-level software and scripts.
• Contribute to research reports, presentations, white papers, and competitive proposals.
• Create and analyze network protocols.
• Design, build, test, deploy, and maintain tooling that helps increase engineering development velocity and product quality.
• Proactively identify user pain points and opportunities to improve infrastructure and tooling.
• Work across the stack (front-end, back-end, build, CI/CD).
• Work within the current software stack, understand how it works, identify and fix bugs, and implement new features as needed.
• Refactor and write new software for front-end and back-end components to improve current and future implementations.
• Implement a cohesive mapping, 2D, and 3D interface for mobile robots using standard mapping engines and formats, and standard graphical engines in support of required autonomy behaviors.
• Design and implement new custom UI/UX to improve the ability of operators to command robot swarms and understand their current state.
• Implement C2 which interfaces the graphical interface with the robots themselves through custom messaging protocols.
• Design, develop, and implement cross-platform systems and interfaces.
• Collaborate across diverse teams with differing goals and objectives to unify design and architecture for efficient development.
• Lead the design, development, testing, and documentation of Command and Control (C2) systems for distributed mobile systems.
• Serve as a subject matter expert for software architectural framework, methodologies, and tools.
• Ensure that work is performed to appropriate professional standards and technical requirements are met.
• Mentor and support fellow engineers on engineering best practices.

Requirements

• Candidates currently enrolled in an accredited degree program relevant to this position will be considered. The candidate must have a graduation date of no later than August 2026.
• Experience in modern backend programming languages such as C++ and C#.
• Interest in UI/UX design.
• Experience with one or more of the following:
  • Geospatial Engines, GIS Tools, such as ArcGIS, Cesium, OpenSceneGraph, or related tools.
  • Autonomous systems, computational robotics algorithms, and/or interfaces and C2.
  • UI/UX design for gaming and/or operational interfaces.
  • gRPC/Protobuf or similar messaging frameworks.
  • 3D graphics/rendering pipelines, such as OpenGL/DirectX, and through engines such as UnReal or Unity, leveraging available hardware effectively.
  • Computational geometry, computer vision, or related disciplines to assist algorithms toward effective rendering of complex robot agent behaviors and goals to an operator.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Familiarity with algorithms, data structures, automated testing, and other technical tools.
• Comfort working independently with limited oversight.

Preferred Qualifications

• Active Secret Clearance.
• Experience developing C2 applications for distributed systems.
• Experience leading a small team of developers.
• Experience with multiple items listed in the requirements section.
• Experience maintaining continuous integration systems.

Travel

10% - 25% travel.

Qualifications

This position is an open-rank announcement. The final job offer will be dependent on candidate qualifications in alignment with Research Faculty Extension Professional ranks.

• 2-9 years of related experience with a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Systems Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or any related field.
• 0-7 years of related experience with a Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Systems Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or any related field.
• 0-4 years of related experience with a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Systems Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or any related field.

U.S. Citizenship is required due to research contracts with the U.S. federal government. Candidates must be able to obtain and maintain an active security clearance.

Benefits

Comprehensive benefits including Health & Welfare, Retirement Plans, Tuition Reimbursement, Time Off, and Professional Development. More details can be found here.