Head of Flight Control System (FCS) (all genders)

Job description

About Us STARK is a new kind of defence technology company. We design, develop, and manufacture high-performance unmanned systems that are software-defined, mass-scalable, and cost-effective, changing how autonomous systems are deployed across multiple domains. This gives our operators a decisive edge in highly contested environments. As threats rise, STARK is strengthening the technological edge of NATO Allies and their Partners to deter aggression and defend Europe. Your mission As Head of FCS, you own STARK's flight control system: the software and firmware that fly our aircraft, and the avionics hardware it runs on. Your team develops the FCS as a core product and delivers it into multiple Loitering Munition platform developments across STARK. You build that team, across HW/SW: flight software and firmware, and avionics hardware, with product management, systems engineering and integration binding them together. The current software is based on available libraries (e.g. PX4 or similar) and your team integrates and extends it for current and new products. The ambition is to develop own flight control laws and embedded software in future. You will work with flight dynamics and control laws from our flight sciences team, requirements and interface definitions from systems engineering, and you deliver qualified flight control systems and software releases into the platform teams for integration and flight test of prototypes, and then full production. Several aircraft programmes run in parallel and every one of them wants flight control now, so the challenge in this job is to develop a core capability and support its deployment against programme deadlines. The scope grows with the team: it starts with the flight software and widens into an own development avionics hardware. Several of the strategic decisions that shape the scope and team are open, and your mission will include making them. Responsibilities Team & capability build Develop and manage sub-teams across software and hardware, with team leads who can run their areas. Hire and lead both hardware and software engineering areas, building upon the current software team. Balance core development and platform reusability with project-specific customer deadlines in a fast-paced environment. Plan sprints and allocate capacity across parallel aircraft programmes, and keep focus on priorities with urgent deadlines and critical projects. Build a design verification culture of that catches problems on the bench: design reviews, code reviews, continuous integration. Serve as the primary point of contact for Vehicle Systems Leads, Payload Teams, and Ground Control Software teams across active projects. Flight Control System design, integration & verification Architect a unified, modular FCS platform (hardware + software) capable of supporting multi-rotor, fixed-wing, and VTOL aircraft with minimal platform-specific code duplication Lead the development of automated Software-in-the-Loop (SIL) and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) test environments to accelerate regression testing. Own the safety-critical flight termination system, hardware and software, for test and development. Direct hardware/software co-design trade studies evaluating sensor selection (IMUs, barometers, magnetometers), processing units, bus architectures (CAN/DroneCAN, Ethernet, UART), and power redundancy schemes. Agree the design assurance approach with system safety and certification, oversee the production of technical documentation and means of compliance for the FCS. Perform FMECA (Failure Mode, Effects, and Criticality Analysis) to ensure system reliability and redundancy. Work with system level ground and flight testing to develop, test and analyse telemetry data for control loop tuning and design verification. Flight software & firmware Lead the avionics software team, which shall own the PX4-based software integration and extension: custom modules, drivers, flight modes, failsafe logic, sensor and component interfaces. Deliver flight control software to new prototypes, in-production, and in-service units, managing version-control and release management to the different platforms and fleet. Integrate the control laws into the flight control software for each platform Define software development standards and processes suitable and scalable from rapid prototyping through to mass production. Avionics hardware Lead the avionics hardware team, which shall take our flight-controller hardware from requirements through schematic, PCB layout, component selection and integration of sensor interfaces. Direct trade studies on sensor selection, processing, bus architecture (CAN/DroneCAN, Ethernet, UART, SPI), power distribution and redundancy. Drive EMI/EMC, signal integrity, mechanical and thermal design, environmental qualification, and design for manufacture with Production. Deliver flight control hardware into the HIL benches, and qualified boards and BSP into the programmes. Qualifications Required Degree in aerospace, electrical, or computer engineering, robotics, or a related field. 7+ years in UAV, avionics, or robotics engineering, with 2+ years of technical leadership or engineering management experience. Control Theory: Strong proficiency in linear/non-linear control theory (PID, LQR, MPC), flight dynamics, state estimation (Kalman Filters / EKF), and vehicle system identification. FCS Software: experience with PX4, Ardupilot or similar, proprietary RTOS FCS development, or real-time embedded environments. Avionics Hardware: Hands-on familiarity with PCB design principles, sensor integration, EMI/EMC mitigation, and communication buses (CAN, SPI, UART, Ethernet, Arinc, Milbus). Experience in building and managing engineering teams Business-fluent English; German at working level is useful, not required. NATO member-state citizen, eligible for German security clearance (Ü2/Ü3). Preferred Experience with unmanned system development (multi-rotors, fixed-wing, VTOL-hybrid) Experience in developing avionics to aerospace standards (DO-178C, DO-254, ARP4754A) or equivalent Automotive or Industrial standards (IEC, etc) Experience with automated HIL/SIL test bench setup and test execution Experience running hardware-software co-development using Agile frameworks. Development of new flight controllers Leadership in a multi-programme organisation Mindset Build for reuse: You solve the problem once, in a way the next three programmes can use, and you can say no to the one-off that would cost you the platform. Comfortable without the answer: Parts of the roadmap are still open. You make sound calls anyway and revisit them when the decisions land. Close to the aircraft: You go to the field, watch your builds fly, and assess the data Straight about risk: You say when something is not ready to fly, in front of people who want it to be. Talent Contact: Sally Grütte-Pad, Interim Lead TA Partner via