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Swan

Autonomous UAV navigation in GPS-denied environments

Senior Platform Engineer - Embedded Linux & Security

Security Engineering & ArchitecturePosted on Nov 10
Full-timeSan Francisco, CA, USA$175k - $250k /yrIn-person

About the Job

Requirements

  • At least 6 years of experience across Linux systems, security, and infrastructure engineering.
  • Strong working knowledge of hardware-backed security, including secure boot chains, fused keys, Trusted Platform Modules (TPMs) and firmware TPMs, Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs), attestation, and sealed storage.
  • Hands-on experience hardening Linux devices, containers, and services, with fluency in permissions, capabilities, and systemd.
  • Current knowledge of securing edge and Internet of Things (IoT) devices, including A/B partitions, read-only root filesystems, and verified boot.
  • Ability to build and secure cloud infrastructure and continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines.
  • Coding skills for tooling and backend services, and ability to review code for security issues.
  • Experience threat modeling systems and working with penetration testers or red teams.
  • Ability to deliver priorities with urgency and proactively find, raise, and fix issues with the team.

Responsibilities

  • Improve secure device provisioning and hardware-backed security, including fusing, signing, device identity, secure boot, attestation, and disk encryption.
  • Help define and harden software release processes from source to device.
  • Help design device authentication and authorization services.
  • Harden device images and container runtimes, including mandatory access control such as AppArmor or SELinux.
  • Run services with least privilege using systemd sandboxing, non-root accounts, and correct file ownership and permissions.
  • Set SSH and firewall policy, and close debug paths such as UART, JTAG, and USB recovery.
  • Secure web services on devices and in the cloud using TLS and mTLS, reverse proxies, and least-privilege service accounts.
  • Threat model the platform, help scope penetration tests, and track vulnerabilities.
  • Plan security for partner engagements and third-party integrations by defining requirements, reviewing interfaces and data flows, and setting access boundaries.
  • Help shape fleet management and over-the-air update approaches, from device enrollment through deployment.
  • Build cloud pipelines for device data and identity, with least-privilege access scoped to each device.
  • Contribute to arm64 build and image pipelines, including cross-compilation, QEMU-based builds and tests, multi-architecture containers, and root filesystem customization.
  • Write and maintain backend code for device and infrastructure tooling.

Desired Qualifications

  • Hands-on implementation of secure boot, key fusing, or attestation on embedded hardware.
  • Hands-on implementation of secure over-the-air updates, including fleet update tools such as Mender.
  • Knowledge of machine learning model security on edge devices, including current risks and mitigations.
  • Embedded penetration testing or red team work, including UART and JTAG access, firmware extraction, and rollback and recovery-mode attacks.
  • Cloud security depth in serverless systems, identity and access management (IAM) policy design, key management, and device identity.
  • Infrastructure as code experience with tools such as Terraform or Ansible.
  • C++ and Python experience.
  • Experience in defense, export-controlled, or Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC)-regulated environments.
  • Experience in a small, fast-paced startup environment.
  • Familiarity with corporate security and information technology infrastructure.

About the Company

Swan

Autonomous UAV navigation in GPS-denied environments

Swan develops autonomous systems for defense and industrial use. Its main products are unmanned aerial vehicles and software that let these drones navigate, map, and operate in GPS-denied environments while keeping electromagnetic emissions low. The software stack combines data from LiDAR, cameras, and inertial sensors to make real-time decisions, and it runs on C++, Python, and ROS-compatible frameworks to control autonomous navigation, perception, and mission execution. Swan differentiates itself by targeting GPS-denied, electromagnetically contested settings and emphasizing scalable, adaptable platforms that can be deployed across real-world robotic systems. It is backed by defense-focused venture capital and has been selected by the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit for Project Artemis to develop long-range, one-way autonomous platform prototypes, signaling a goal to provide reliable, unmanned systems for military and industrial applications in challenging environments.

Company size
1-10
Company stage
Seed
Total funding
$6M
Headquarters
Pittsburgh, PA
Founded
2019

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