Senior Development Engineer – Recon Works

Location: Washington, DC (Hybrid on-site)

Travel: <25%

Clearance: U.S. Citizenship and ability to obtain a security clearance required

About NODA

NODA is a veteran-owned, venture-backed defense technology company building the orchestration layer for autonomous unmanned systems. Our platform coordinates fleets of heterogeneous vehicles across air, sea, and land for defense and intelligence customers. We expect every hire to be mission-driven with strong agency.

NODA Recon Works imagines the future of autonomous warfare, then builds it. We are a small team of multidisciplinary technical experts that scouts, analyzes, prototypes, and delivers de-risked technologies to integrate into our products or become new ones altogether.

Engineers wanted for challenging journey. Fast pace, uncertain requirements, imaginative leaps expected, path to production sometimes doubtful. Defense of the free world in case of success.

The Role

As Senior Development Engineer - Recon Works, you are a broad technical expert that has experience in and curiosity for multiple engineering disciplines. You are passionate about emerging technology as is or could be applied to defense and thinking holistically about how to bring it all together. Imagination, creativity, and comfort with ambiguity are more important than recall of systematized knowledge.

Key Responsibilities

Scout emerging technologies and recommend if/how to include them into future concepts or products

Conduct buy/build/partner assessments for promising technologies that enable heterogeneous autonomy orchestration

Generate new ideas (and the plans to test them) that challenge the status quo

Create prototyping plans to de-risk the most critical unanswered questions about applying a technology to the orchestration problem

Execute developmental prototyping projects and oversee technical progress

Create and manage research relationships with academic institutions

Required Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in a STEM field

5+ years of program or technical delivery in defense environments

Fluency in multiple technical domains

Intellectual curiosity and adaptability

U.S. citizenship; Secret security clearance eligibility

Preferred Qualifications

Graduate degree in a STEM field

Demonstrated experience with both execution and leadership of complex projects

Existing TS/SCI clearance

Experience implementing MBSE using SysML

Skills & Attributes

Imagination and creativity: you view engineering as a creative act, not only as a set of deterministic procedures to make scientific knowledge useful; imagination is more important than knowledge

Comfort with ambiguity: you develop and test directionally correct ideas but you are willing to be wrong and abandon when the technical feasibility or market does not support them

High agency: you are motivated to ideate but also create the structure to implement without being told exactly what to do or how

Technical credibility: you have worked in multiple technical domains, are comfortable moving across them, and curious to learn new ones

Communication: you are equally comfortable speaking to operators and technical experts

Benefits & Perks

Our culture fosters collaboration, respect, and trust, empowering passionate people to do their best work. We offer a competitive salary, comprehensive benefits, and opportunities for career growth. In addition to an opportunity to take part in an innovative, collaborative and fast-growing business with a highly motivated and skilled team, we also take pride in taking care of our employees. Here are just a few ways that we show our appreciation:

We offer comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans

401(k) Retirement Savings Plan to invest in your long-term retirement goals + Company match

Equity grants for new hires

Unlimited PTO

11 Paid holidays

Extremely generous company holiday calendar, including a holiday hiatus in November & December.

Generous Parental Leave

Military Leave for annual training or service requirements

FSA

DCFSA

HSA

Professional Development Opportunities