About the role

We are Jasper and Alessandro, the founders of Impact Drones (YC S26). Jasper (TU Delft aerospace MSc) has built drones for over a decade, including the Hannover Messe VTOL competition winner, and worked with special forces on the 2025 NATO Summit counter-drone plan; Alessandro (Columbia MSc) built the pipeline behind our 180M+ USD in signed LOIs.

We are hiring our founding engineer, our first full-time engineer in San Francisco: the person who owns the software that decides, launches and guides an interceptor when a hostile drone comes for a data center, an airport or a power grid.

In March 2026, Iranian drones struck three AWS data centers in the UAE and Bahrain. Fiber-optic FPV drones cannot be jammed. The only thing that stops them is a physical intercept. That is what we build.

About Impact Drones
We sell Air Defense as a Service to civilian critical infrastructure. One container on site senses, decides and launches our interceptors: HUNTER, a kinetic quadcopter in combat in Ukraine against Shahed-class drones; WEAVER, which catches drones intact in a net; and SABLE, our turbojet interceptor.

What you will own

• Our response software: the path from a radar track to an interceptor in the air.
• Flight software on HUNTER and WEAVER: guidance, failsafes and MAVLink to the container.
• Container integration: sensors, launch bays and the operator screen.
• Field testing at the range with Jasper, and the call on what is ready to fly.
• The stack, the tools and the next hires: you pick them and lead the team.

Your first 3 months

• Month one: your first flight software change flies on WEAVER at the range.
• Month two: a live radar track launches WEAVER from our launch bay through your code, on the operator's release.
• Month three: you lead a full intercept at the range: radar track, bay launch, target drone netted.

What you bring

• Software you shipped onto real hardware that flew, not only in simulation.
• Strong C, C++ or Rust on embedded or real-time systems, plus Python.
• Field tests you ran yourself, and the fixes that came out of them.

Bonus points

• You fly FPV or build quads, and have worked in PX4, ArduPilot or Betaflight source.
• Counter-UAS, defense or aerospace experience.

Compensation

• Base salary: $120,000 to $170,000 per year.
• Equity: 0.5% to 1.25%, 4-year vesting with a 1-year cliff.

Where we work
On-site in San Francisco, CA, with regular field testing at outdoor ranges.

How to apply
Apply here on Work at a Startup and answer the one question on the form: the hardest thing you built that flew, in one or two lines, plus a link if you can share one (repo, video or flight log). We read every application ourselves.

Jasper and Alessandro

This role may involve technical data subject to U.S. export controls (ITAR and EAR). Applicants must be U.S. persons or eligible for any required export authorization.

Impact Drones is an equal opportunity employer. We consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records in line with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.

About the interview

We run every step ourselves. No recruiters.

Intro, 20 minutes: a call, or a coffee in San Francisco, with Jasper. We tell you where we are and what we need. You tell us what you have built. We both find out fast if this is worth more of your time.

Technical deep dive: walk us through something you built that ran on real hardware. Bring code, logs or flight videos you are free to share. If the work is under NDA or export control, just talk us through it. We want to hear what broke, why it broke and how you fixed it. No whiteboard puzzles.

Working session: about three hours with us on our hardware or code, on a problem we set up for it, at a time that suits you. You see how we work, we see how you work.

References: two or three people you have built hardware with. We ask before we contact anyone at your current employer.

Decision: we decide within two weeks of the first call, and we tell you either way.

About IMPACT Drones

Impact Drones (YC S26) sells Air Defense as a Service to civilian critical infrastructure: data centers, refineries, airports and power grids.

In March 2026, Iranian drones struck three AWS data centers in the UAE and Bahrain. Fiber-optic FPV drones cannot be jammed. The only thing that stops them is a physical intercept. That is what we build.

One container on site senses, decides and launches our interceptors: HUNTER, a kinetic quadcopter in combat in Ukraine against Shahed-class drones; WEAVER, which catches drones intact in a net; and SABLE, our turbojet interceptor. First LOIs signed with defense and data-center customers.

We work on-site in San Francisco, with regular field testing at outdoor ranges.