Senior Software Engineer - Mission Autonomy (All Genders)

About this role

STARK is a new kind of defence technology company revolutionizing the way autonomous systems are deployed across multiple domains. We design, develop and manufacture high-performance unmanned systems that are software-defined, mass-scalable, and cost-effective. This provides our operators with a decisive edge in highly contested environments. We're focused on delivering deployable, high-performance systems - not future promises.

In a time of rising threats, STARK is bolstering the technological edge of NATO Allies and their Partners to deter aggression and defend Europe - today. Minerva is STARK's command and control software — the brain that connects operators to autonomous systems across multiple domains in real time. The Minerva team is a small, senior software group based in Berlin and Munich, working directly with our systems and hardware teams to build mission-critical C2 capabilities deployed in active operational environments.

We move fast, ship real software, and operate under constraints most engineers never encounter — low-bandwidth networks, air-gapped devices, high-stakes decision loops. There is no room for abstraction for its own sake. Everything we build ends up in the hands of real operators in the field . As a Senior Software Engineer, Mission Autonomy , build the intelligence behind real UAV swarming - the algorithms that decide which vehicle attacks which target, how the swarm re-organises when conditions change mid-mission, and how 4+ loitering munitions coordinate autonomously to overwhelm adversary defences.

You will design and implement the swarm decision-making layer at the heart of Minerva Frontline, our Mission Management Software. This means building the optimisation and planning algorithms that sit above our existing mission planning engine, turning a set of operator-level objectives and battlefield conditions into coordinated, multi-vehicle strike missions—then dynamically re-planning them when the battlefield shifts.

This is Genesis-stage work. There is no off-the-shelf library for what we're building. You will work shoulder-to-shoulder with our Software Architect and our backend team to take swarm coordination from concept to live flight demonstration. If you want to solve hard multi-agent problems that have real consequences in the physical world, this is the role. Architect the Swarm Brain: Design and implement the task allocation engines (auction-based allocation, Hungarian method, constraint satisfaction) that optimally assign multiple vehicles to multiple targets in high-threat environments.