Temporary Software Engineer I - Autonomous Systems, Missouri Institute for Defense - University of Missouri-Kansas City

Hiring Department

The Missouri Institute for Defense & Energy (MIDE) at the University of Missouri-Kansas City

Job Description

The Missouri Institute for Defense & Energy (MIDE) conducts applied research and development in artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, cybersecurity, and advanced engineering. MIDE works with university researchers and external partners to translate emerging technologies into reliable, deployable capabilities.

The Temporary Software Engineer - Autonomous Systems will support the development, integration, and testing of software for autonomous drone navigation and mission execution. The position will build software pipelines and platform interfaces that connect flight systems, sensors, edge-computing hardware, mission-planning tools, and external services through APIs. A major focus will be ensuring reliable network communication, secure data exchange, and interoperability across software and hardware platforms. The employee will work with faculty, engineers, researchers, and project partners to move software from prototype development through laboratory and field testing.

This is a temporary, hourly, non-benefit-eligible staff position. The role is expected to be primarily on-site in Kansas City, Missouri, and may include occasional domestic travel for integration activities and field tests.

Job Roles:

• Develop, test, and maintain software modules in Python, or related languages for autonomous navigation, mission planning, and mission execution.
• Build data and control pipelines for waypoint generation, vehicle status, telemetry, command execution, sensor data, mission logs, and post-mission analysis.
• Integrate third-party APIs, software development kits, web services, middleware, and hardware interfaces across flight controllers, edge devices, ground-control systems, and external platforms.
• Configure and troubleshoot wired and wireless network interfaces, addressing, ports, routing, protocols, authentication, permissions, and connectivity needed for reliable system operation.
• Deploy and maintain software on Linux-based edge-computing platforms, including NVIDIA Jetson, Raspberry Pi, or comparable embedded systems. Use version control, containerization, logging, configuration management, and reproducible deployment practices to support collaborative software development.
• Support simulation, software-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop, laboratory, and field testing; collect results and diagnose software, hardware, and communication failures.
• Prepare and maintain technical documentation, including software architecture notes, API/interface specifications, setup instructions, test plans, results, and troubleshooting guides.