Forward Deployed System Integration Engineer - L3 (UAV Robotics) at Fiducial

OPENING WE CANNOT PROVIDE VISA SPONSORSHIP DETAILS Preferred starting date: ASAP Weekly availability: full-time (5 days/week, minimum 60% travel) Location: Aerospace Innovation Hub, Delft, the Netherlands ABOUT THE COMPANY Fiducial is a young but fast-growing deep-tech start-up with big ambitions at the frontier of autonomy, perception, and defence. Our core expertise lies in 3D vision and graphics technologies which we deploy in a dual-use context for inspection and defence. This role will focus mainly on the defence context where we are developing software for advanced on-board UAV situational awareness in military applications. Our solutions are aimed to operate with low-cost and widely available sensors and compute. From there, we plan to develop a line-up of interconnected solutions to safeguard European safety. Our team consists of engineers that are passionate about the technology and solutions they develop. The only time most of us are not thinking about the technology is when we are asleep, and sometimes even then. Our team members have a background in different fields such as Aerospace Engineering, Computational Science and Engineering, Robotics and Computer Graphics. Our office is located in the Aerospace Innovation Hub, a start-up hub located on the TU Delft campus in the faculty of Aerospace Engineering. We work closely with top-tier partners, ranging from government agencies and prime contractors to academic research institutes and other start-ups. Our projects span from large tender orders in collaboration with partners to low TRL research with government agencies. Whether through formal R&D programs or rapid prototyping tracks, we operate at the intersection of innovation and deployment. YOUR ROLE We are looking for a Forward-Deployed System Integration Engineer L3 to lead the deployment of full-stack autonomy solutions onto partner UAV platforms. This role sits at the intersection of hardware, software, and field operations, and is ideal for someone who is equally comfortable debugging onboard compute systems, integrating avionics, and driving technical execution with customers in real-world environments. You will work closely with internal engineering teams, project managers, and external partners to take autonomy systems from integration and testing through flight validation and production deployment. You will be expected to operate with high ownership, navigate ambiguity, and coordinate multiple customer integrations across varying hardware platforms. Your responsibilities will include: - Plan out and lead end-to-end deployment of autonomy solutions on partner UAV platforms, from system integration and bench testing to flight testing and production readiness. - Solve complex integration challenges by fluidly switching between software-first and hardware-first approaches, depending on what the problem requires. - Diagnose and resolve issues spanning networking, sensors, avionics interfaces, power systems, and autonomy software. - Oversee integration activities across internal and external stakeholders, ensuring progress across parallel workstreams. - Plan, coordinate, and execute flight tests in collaboration with project managers and partner teams. - Work directly with customers and partners to align technical expectations, communicate tradeoffs, and ensure successful deployment outcomes. - Identify operational bottlenecks and implement scalable workflows, process improvements, and best practices that improve execution quality and team efficiency across integration streams. - Contribute to a collaborative team culture by recognizing and leveraging the strengths of colleagues across disciplines. - Traveling to partner sites, including international locations, to work on-site and ensure the solutions function reliably in demanding real-world conditions ("in the dirt"). WHAT WE EXPECT FROM YOU - Experience leading technical integration or deployment efforts for complex robotic, aerospace, or embedded systems. - Exposure to both hardware and software integration problems, with the ability to independently troubleshoot across the stack. - Experience with aerospace systems, preferably unmanned vehicles, and familiarity with related electronic systems. - Experience working with single-board computers, embedded Linux systems, and/or microcontrollers (MCUs). - Demonstrated ability to lead deployments from integration and testing through production rollout on customer or partner platforms. - Experience coordinating or supporting flight tests or similar field-validation exercises. - Demonstrated ability to set up, improve, and scale operational or engineering processes in a fast-moving environment. - Strong communication and collaboration skills across engineering, program, and customer teams. - Ability to manage multiple technical streams simultaneously while maintaining attention to detail and execution quality. - Experience working with drone flight controllers such as Ardupilot, PX4, or Betaflight. - Being comfortable travelling often and for extended periods. - Availability to work irregular hours when required (for flight tests, deployments, and partner schedules). While having the perfect background is nice, if you are able to present evidence of outstanding engineering and execution capability we are interested in talking regardless. If you are the right fit, we believe in your ability to pick up the required background knowledge on the fly. WHAT WE OFFER - Money of course. - 25 vacation days per year. - Reimbursed travel expenses and company laptop. - Traveling abroad to work with our partners. - (Really) flexible working hours and option to work from home 2 days per week (when not abroad). - Working in an international, world-class team of engineers and entrepreneurs solving real-life problems with amazing technology. - Large freedom in how you work and implement solutions, project ownership is incredibly important to us. - The opportunity to take technical risks, to implement stuff the ‘right’ way and to iterate quickly with tight feedback loops. We are innovating, learning is to be expected. - Responsibility over the things you implement, you are the expert on what you build. THE APPLICATION PROCEDURE - If after reading the above you are convinced you are the right person for the job, send us some information about yourself; this can be a resume, website or other source, as long as we get a clear impression of your background and skills. - We’ll get back to you ASAP. If we feel you could be a fit for the position, we will share more information and request you to complete a questionnaire. After this, interviews could follow. - If at this point we feel you are the person we are looking for, we’ll discuss the specifics. - Welcome to the team!