Staff Software Integration Engineer, Merlin

• Strong proficiency in modern C++, including resource management, concurrency, error handling, and maintainable systems software design
• Experience developing timing-sensitive software on Linux, including fixed-period execution, watchdogs, thread synchronization, and reliable startup and shutdown
• Deep familiarity with Linux host and embedded systems, including services, permissions, networking, software builds, deployment, and system-level diagnostics
• Experience integrating avionics or comparable hardware interfaces, including ARINC 429, and the ability to interpret and implement interface control documents
• Experience developing binary serializers and parsers, with attention to byte order, framing, validation, malformed inputs, and protocol compatibility
• Strong understanding of UDP/TCP networking and asynchronous data pipelines, including buffering, packet loss, ordering, backpressure, and connection management
• Experience with embedded Linux cross-compilation and deployment using vendor SDKs and build systems such as CMake
• Proficiency in Python for engineering tools, test automation, and data-processing workflows
• Experience developing Rust services, or substantial experience with asynchronous systems programming and the ability to become productive in Rust
• Experience with automated testing, continuous integration, Git-based version control and code review, and Jira or comparable issue tracking
• Demonstrated ability to own an end-to-end system, lead technical decisions, and troubleshoot directly with physical hardware
• Ability to work regularly onsite in our Boston lab to integrate and troubleshoot equipment

Desirable

• You are a hands-on systems software engineer who takes ownership of complex software and hardware integration efforts, from architecture through deployment and operation
• You write disciplined, maintainable code and troubleshoot methodically across real-time applications, Linux hosts, networks, and physical equipment
• You work independently, collaborate across engineering disciplines, and help other engineers build on what you deliver
• As part of Merlin’s Virtual Test Environments (VTE) team, you will own software connecting aircraft avionics, hardware-in-the-loop test environments, simulation models, and flight-test data systems
• Your work will enable engineers to exercise aircraft systems before flight, observe their behavior, and capture and replay data to investigate issues
• Own the architecture, development, and sustainment of real-time I/O software and telemetry infrastructure supporting aircraft integration benches and simulation environments
• Develop modern C++ software on embedded Linux targets to interface with avionics hardware, manage periodic execution and watchdogs, and integrate generated aircraft simulation models
• Develop and maintain hardware abstraction layers using UEI PowerDNA equipment, vendor SDKs, low-level I/O APIs, and device drivers
• Integrate ARINC 429, CAN, serial, and discrete I/O using aircraft interface control documents; validate message encoding, signal mapping, update rates, and error handling
• Develop and maintain asynchronous Rust services that ingest multiple telemetry sources, synchronize and order samples, and stream data to flight-test displays and recording systems
• Implement robust binary protocols and network interfaces using UDP, TCP, and messaging technologies such as ZeroMQ, accounting for packet loss, ordering, buffering, and client liveness
• Build capabilities for timestamp alignment, session recording, data retrieval, and simulation replay that make integration issues reproducible
• Maintain cross-compilation, packaging, and deployment workflows for ARM Linux targets and Linux hosts, including Yocto SDKs, CMake, Debian packages, systemd, Docker, and Docker Compose
• Establish automated verification through unit tests, hardware integration tests, parser fuzzing, and Python-based smoke tests and tooling
• Partner with avionics, aircraft software, flight dynamics, and flight test engineers to reproduce aircraft integration conditions in the lab and resolve issues across software and hardware boundaries