Lead Engineer - Embedded Software – GE Aerospace Research

Description

The role is based in the company's research center in Niskayuna, NY, where the team builds embedded software for aerospace controls and communication systems.

The posting also covers a senior research leadership role in robotics, autonomy and human-machine teaming, with a 10 to 15+ year research horizon.

Responsibilities

• Develop and apply advanced software for embedded controls and communication systems, working alone or with a team.
• Work with hardware suppliers and engineering tool vendors to find the right fit for hard problems.
• Lead small to medium-sized projects or tasks.
• Record your work in patent applications, technical reports and publications.
• Keep up with advances in embedded software and look for new ideas and uses.
• Collaborate with colleagues across the company and with government agencies.
• Put the safety of everyone involved in the technical work first, including people working near robotic and autonomous systems.
• Monitor academia, national labs, startups, competitors and neighboring industries, and form a clear view of long-range robotics and autonomy threats and opportunities for the company, including beyond the current product roadmap and in new markets.
• Find and drive breakthrough advances in robotics, autonomy and human-machine teaming that deliver high business impact over a 10 to 15+ year horizon, sometimes longer.
• Own program outcomes: state the technical case in business terms, retire major technical and adoption risks early, set ambitious but realistic milestones, and drive operations, quality and delivery.
• Bring together expertise from other disciplines such as materials, manufacturing, aero-thermal, controls, systems, digital and AI, and human factors, as needed.
• Identify new areas across manufacturing, maintenance and services, products and emerging domains where robotics and autonomy can help.
• Use roadmaps, technology scouting and portfolio choices to gain advantage and business results.
• Make clear go, no-go or pivot decisions at stage gates, document the reasoning and lessons learned, and stop work that no longer fits the business case.
• Build and steer partnerships with robot platform companies, universities and national labs so the company shapes what gets built.
• Pursue and win external funding from DARPA, DoD, NSF, the ARM Institute, DoE and industry consortia, and coach principal investigators on framing, program capture and review preparation.
• Use internal research funds as seed capital: make focused bets on high-upside ideas, produce early proof, and position the company for larger external programs.
• Build working relationships with product, engineering, manufacturing, MRO and services leaders to understand their priorities, constraints and needs, and where research could help.
• Recruit, mentor and develop technical talent, including Technical Fellows, senior scientists and early-career researchers.
• Represent the company externally through keynotes, university engagements, workshops and partnerships.
• Help shape the research organization's operating model and improve how it selects, runs and transitions advanced research.

Requirements

• A bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, computer science or a related field with at least 7 years of industry experience, a master's degree with at least 5 years, or a Ph.D. with at least 3 years.
• Solid embedded development experience on platforms such as x86 and ARM.
• Strong programming skills in C/C++, Python and Rust.
• A PhD in robotics, artificial intelligence, computer science, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering or a closely related field.
• At least 15 years of progressive research and technical leadership across autonomous systems, robotics, machine learning and/or human-machine teaming, with applied work that delivered business or operational impact.
• A record of owning an R&D portfolio: framing the business case, running technical work, building teams, planning capital and lab investment, and making stage-gated decisions.
• A track record of moving robotics or autonomy technology from research into demonstration or deployment in a real operational setting such as manufacturing, MRO or defense, with measurable value.
• A proven record of winning external research funding from sources such as NSF, DARPA, DoD, the ARM Institute, industry consortia, EU framework programs or equivalent.
• Deep technical strength in at least two of: collaborative autonomy and human-robot collaboration; machine learning, including deep learning, reinforcement learning and LLM-based agents; cognitive and intelligent systems; computer vision and multimodal perception; task and motion planning; assurance and safety for autonomous systems.
• Ownership: take full responsibility for outcomes and the steps to reach them, actively secure the support you need, and keep accountability even when obstacles appear. This attribute is non-negotiable.
• Communication: explain ideas clearly, understand input in context, and ask questions with curiosity rather than a fixed conclusion. This attribute is non-negotiable.
• Collaboration: work across technical areas, business units and external partners, and help teams move faster together. This attribute is non-negotiable.
• Comfort with ambiguity: work without a fixed path, keep business outcomes in view, and turn uncertainty into structured hypotheses, decisions and progress. This attribute is non-negotiable.
• Developing others: find talent, coach people into bigger roles, and build future technical leaders, using structured coaching to build independent problem solving and mentoring to pass on technical and organizational judgment. This attribute is non-negotiable.
• A commitment to learning: stay curious, model that behavior, and welcome challenge to your own thinking. This attribute is non-negotiable.

Conditions

You must be legally authorized to work in the U.S., and the company will not sponsor employment visas now or in the future for this role.

You must be able to obtain and keep a U.S. government security clearance and meet U.S. Person status to access export-controlled information (U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or granted asylee or refugee status).

You must be willing to work from the Niskayuna, NY office.

You must be willing to travel at least 2 weeks per year.

Base pay ranges from $95,000 to $159,000 USD per year, depending on experience, education and skill set.

Any offer is conditional on passing a drug screen where applicable, and employees may be subject to random and reasonable-suspicion drug and alcohol testing.

Applications close December 30, 2026.

Benefit plans may be changed or ended at any time, and this posting does not create a contract of employment.

Benefits

• An annual discretionary bonus based on a percentage of base salary, or commission under the plan.
• Relocation assistance is provided.
• Medical, dental, vision and prescription drug coverage.
• Access to a company Health Coach and a 24/7 confidential Employee Assistance Program, plus HealthAhead wellbeing programs.
• A 401(k) savings plan with company matching and retirement contributions, plus Fidelity resources and planning consultants.
• Tuition assistance, adoption assistance, paid parental leave, disability insurance, life insurance, and paid time off for vacation or illness.
• Desired: coding experience in Bash, Python, C, MATLAB, ARMv8 assembly or RISC-V assembly.
• Desired: experience with embedded devices from Intel, AMD, Xilinx, NXP and others.
• Desired: wired and wireless networking or network security experience, knowledge of the 802.1, 802.3 and/or 802.11 standards, and software-defined networking with OpenFlow, Open vSwitch or Mininet.
• Desired: hands-on lab work with embedded hardware such as protoboards, or with switches and analyzers.
• Desired: RTOS development with VxWorks or FreeRTOS.
• Desired: a record of taking an innovative idea from concept to product, and experience with Agile program management.
• Desired: recognized thought leadership in robotics, autonomy or applied AI, with sustained external visibility such as keynotes, editorial roles, chairing or consortium leadership.
• Desired: a strong publication and patent record in robotics, autonomy or AI, recognized at venues such as ICRA, IROS, HUMANOIDS, NeurIPS, ICML, RSS or equivalent.
• Desired: experience leading a research lab or discipline inside a corporate research center, including staffing, capital planning and roadmap ownership.
• Desired: experience leading or serving as PI on an ARM Institute, NSF I/UCRC, DARPA or similar consortium program.
• Desired: established relationships across academia, national labs, humanoid and industrial robot companies, and startups.
• Desired: working knowledge of manufacturing and MRO operations and the constraints on deploying robotics and autonomy there.
• Desired: experience placing internal seed capital and defending stop, pivot or scale decisions on high-visibility programs.