Chief System Architect (Airborne Systems) - UAV/Drone Platform

Are you passionate about R&D, who is driven to bring real impact and enjoy taking research from concept to real-world development? Our company is a global multicultural privately-owned new-generation Research Center founded in Eindhoven, Netherlands, in 2025. Our mission is to develop cutting-edge solutions at the intersection of modern technology and emerging markets.

KRUSH Labs is seeking a Chief System Architect to own the end-to-end architecture of a multi-rotor UAV/drone platform, spanning airborne compute, autonomy middleware, sensor suite, comms/data links, payload interfaces, and ground segment integration. The role defines the system decomposition, interfaces, and verification strategy, and drives cross-team alignment from requirements through flight testing and production readiness.

Key responsibilities

- Own the system architecture of the UAV/drone platform (airborne compute, autonomy stack, sensors, power, comms, payload, ground segment).

- Translate mission requirements into a clear system decomposition: modules, interfaces, data flows, timing/latency budgets, and safety constraints.

- Define and maintain interface control documents (ICDs) across avionics, perception/navigation, controls, payload, and ground control station (GCS).

- Lead architecture trade studies: compute selection (SoC/accelerators), sensor configurations (GNSS/IMU/cameras/LiDAR), networking (Ethernet/CAN/UART), and cost–benefit decisions.

- Establish performance and verification plans (HITL/SITL, bench tests, flight tests), including acceptance criteria and traceable test coverage.

- Ensure reliability and safety engineering practices: redundancy concepts, fail-safe behaviors, health monitoring, and rigorous change control for safety-critical interfaces.

- Coordinate closely with hardware teams and software teams to ensure the middleware/abstraction layer integrates cleanly with evolving electronics and firmware.

- Drive documentation quality: architecture diagrams, MBSE artifacts (as applicable), requirements traceability, and release readiness for production deployments.

Expected deliverables

- System architecture specification (block diagrams, data flows, timing constraints, safety assumptions).

- Interface Control Documents (ICDs) for airborne–payload–ground integrations.

- Verification & validation plan with HITL/SITL + flight test milestones and measurable acceptance criteria.

- Architecture backlog / roadmap: prioritized technical risks, trade studies, and integration plan across teams.

Requirements:
- BSc/MSc (or equivalent experience) in Systems Engineering, Aerospace/Aeronautical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, or Computer Science.

- 5+ years of hands-on experience in UAV/drone, robotics, avionics, or autonomy system development with demonstrable system-level ownership.

- Strong understanding of embedded compute and real-time systems (Linux, timing, throughput/latency budgets, resource constraints).

- Experience defining and maintaining interfaces across multidisciplinary teams (hardware, firmware, autonomy software, payload, and ground segment).

- Proven verification mindset: structured test strategy and experience with simulation (SITL), lab validation (HITL/bench), and flight field testing.

- Excellent technical communication: clear documentation, trade-off rationale, and stakeholder alignment.

Nice to have

- Experience with ROS 2-based autonomy stacks and middleware design (message interfaces, lifecycle, tooling).

- Sensor fusion / navigation familiarity (GNSS/INS, VIO/LiDAR odometry) and their integration constraints.

- Knowledge of aviation/UAS assurance processes (e.g., DO-178/DO-254 concepts, redundancy analysis, safety cases), or equivalent safety-critical engineering practices.

- Experience with data links and comms (LTE/5G, RF links, MAVLink/RTPS/UDP, secure telemetry), and GCS integration.

- Exposure to compute accelerators (GPU/TPU/NPU) for onboard perception and power/thermal trade-offs.

Benefits:
Why Join Us?

This is an exceptional opportunity to bring your own daring concepts to life. What sets KRUSH Labs apart is our ability to bridge the gap between theoretical research and real-world application.

Working alongside top talent brings your expertise to a new height. Our Engineers are passionate researchers and PhD scientists who are driven to bring real impact.

We build solutions for specific needs. We work to address existing challenges of a client to ensure they receive practical, high-performance solutions.