Engineering Roles

In some cases, you’ll bridge directly from a research prototype to the field. In others, you’ll be the forward-deployed element of a larger software development team. Your toolkit spans multiple programming languages, whatever the job requires; many mission engineers are also full-stack engineers. You’ll participate in architecture design. You’ll tackle front-end development and system integration problems at scale. You’ll also identify and connect operational requirements to the technical staff who build back-end capabilities.  

Sometimes you’ll push back on a design because the integration cost is too high. Your job is to be the translator between the research culture (breaking new ground) and the fielding culture (deploying with high confidence).

When a research algorithm or a new software service is ready, you’ll harden it as needed, integrate it with the front end, iterating with operators as needed to ensure that the resulting capability is fit-to-purpose. You’ll ensure latency budgets are met, and that the overall system performs reliably under stress.

You’ll participate in field trials and mission deployments. You’ll talk to operators about what works and what doesn’t. You’ll return to the lab with feedback that changes the next build cycle. That feedback loop from operator to engineer to refinement is where mission engineers find their greatest leverage.