Senior PX4 Developer

Rainmaker Technology Corporation

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El Segundo, CA on site Until 8/21/2026 First posted April 25, 2026 Last posted April 25, 2026
Job description

Rainmaker builds systems to make it rain. Our autonomous drone fleets and weather modification platform operate worldwide: expanding freshwater supplies, protecting agriculture, and proving that cloud seeding works at scale.

 

You are:

  • A seasoned software engineer with a background in drone autonomy

  • Fast, thoughtful, autonomous, and opinionated

  • Willing to relocate to El Segundo, California

What you’ll work on:

  • Contribute to our drone autonomy software stack end-to-end as a domain expert

  • Modify and extend PX4 firmware for custom use cases and flight behaviors

  • Develop firmware for embedded systems across power, peripherals, and sensing

  • Support simulation-based testing in Gazebo, HITL, and SITL environments

  • Assist with flight test support, log analysis, and software debugging

What we’re looking for:

  • 3+ years of professional experience developing software for PX4/ArduPilot systems

  • Experience shipping production code in Rust, plus C++ or Python

  • Experience developing firmware for ESP32, RP2040, or similar embedded targets

  • Comfort with low-level peripheral buses: CAN, UART, I2C, SPI

  • Experience with real-time pub/sub middleware (Zenoh, DDS, ROS 2, MQTT, or similar)

  • Working knowledge of MAVLink and typical autopilot integration patterns

Rainmaker is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Rainmaker is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.


Rainmaker participates in E-Verify. To learn more, including your rights and responsibilities, please visit E-Verify.gov.

Compensation (from employer):
150000–200000 USD per year

About this role

Summary

Develop and modify drone autonomy software, firmware, and support testing environments.

Job title

Senior PX4 Developer

Experience level

3+ years

Industry

software

Location requirements

must be located in or willing to relocate to El Segundo, CA; remote not specified

Salary

150000–200000 USD per year

Management role

No

Skills & keywords

Required skills

PX4ArduPilotrustC++pythonfirmwareESP32RP2040CANUARTI2CSPIpub/sub middlewareZenohDDSROS 2MQTTMAVLink

Preferred skills

rustC++pythonembedded firmwarereal-time middleware

Specializations

drone autonomyfirmware developmentembedded systemsautopilot
Locations

Structured locations inferred from the posting.

El Segundo, CA, USA

On-site City