Skydio
San Mateo, CA - Onsite
About the Company
Skydio is the leading US drone company and the world leader in autonomous flight, the key technology for the future of drones and aerial mobility. The Skydio team combines deep expertise in artificial intelligence, best-in-class hardware and software product development, operational excellence, and customer obsession to empower a broader, more diverse audience of drone users, from utility inspectors to first responders, soldiers in battlefield scenarios and beyond. Skydio’s mission is to make the world a safer and more efficient place through the use of autonomous drones. Our customers—from public safety agencies to industrial and enterprise operators—deploy fleets ranging from a single drone to tens of thousands of drones and docking stations to support critical missions such as infrastructure inspection, emergency response, search and rescue, and large-scale mapping.
About the Role
As a Staff Software Engineer - Full-stack you will design and build the core cloud systems that power autonomous drone operations at scale. Your work will enable customers to plan complex aerial missions, manage and monitor large fleets, visualize rich spatial data, and seamlessly integrate drone operations into their workflows. You’ll develop primarily on Skydio Cloud (our SaaS platform), with occasional work on software that runs directly on the drone. This is a true full-stack role, combining backend systems in Python and Go with TypeScript and React on the frontend. You will collaborate closely with Autonomy, Backend Infrastructure, Product, Design, and Field teams, owning technical direction and features end-to-end while helping shape Skydio’s long-term platform architecture.
Responsibilities
- Design and evolve Skydio Cloud’s core data models, APIs, and services for drones, docks, users, missions, and the large volumes of telemetry, video, and geospatial data they produce.
- Build and maintain core fleet management capabilities, including real-time fleet health, over-the-air updates, asset and media management, security and permissions, user and device management, and fleet-scale observability.
- Develop geospatial and mission-planning systems that allow customers to plan advanced aerial missions, visualize complex spatial datasets, and operate drones autonomously and safely.
- Design secure, scalable, and highly observable systems capable of handling petabytes of real-time data and video from globally distributed drone fleets.
- Collaborate cross-functionally with Product, Design, Backend Infrastructure, and Field teams to rapidly iterate, incorporate customer feedback, and deliver impactful features.
- Provide technical leadership through architecture reviews, code reviews, and proof of concepts, helping raise the bar for engineering quality across the organization.
- Participate in a rotating on-call schedule to help ensure Skydio’s platform remains reliable and available 24/7. While reliability is critical, incidents are rare.
Qualifications
8+ years of experience building full-stack software systems, with strong proficiency in TypeScript, React, GraphQL, Python, and cloud platforms such as AWS.
Required Skills
- Demonstrated systems thinking: the ability to design end-to-end solutions with performance, reliability, testing, and observability in mind.
- Experience building secure, scalable, enterprise-grade cloud applications and APIs.
- Familiarity with modern infrastructure and tooling such as PostgreSQL, Kubernetes, Temporal, or similar technologies.
- Strong product instincts and the ability to take ambiguous problems and turn them into reliable, customer-facing solutions.
Preferred Skills
- Experience with geospatial data, mapping, or visualization tools such as Mapbox, Cesium, PostGIS, ArcGIS, or QGIS.
- Experience with photogrammetry, scanning, mapping, or 3D reconstruction pipelines.
- Experience integrating frontend applications with cloud-based services and real-time data systems.
- Familiarity with autonomy, robotics, or mission-planning architectures (e.g., state machines, behavior trees).
Pay range and compensation package
The annual base salary range for this position is $200,000-$275,000. At Skydio, our compensation packages for regular, full-time employees include competitive base salaries, equity in the form of stock options, and comprehensive benefits packages. Compensation will vary based on factors, including skill level, proficiencies, transferable knowledge, and experience. Relocation assistance may also be provided for eligible roles. Regular, full-time employees are eligible to enroll in the Company’s group health insurance plans. Regular, full-time employees are eligible to receive the following benefits: Paid vacation time, sick leave, holiday pay and 401K savings plan. This position and all associated benefits are subject to applicable federal, state, and local laws, as well as the Company’s policies and eligibility.
Equal Opportunity Statement
Skydio is committed to diversity and inclusivity in the workplace.
