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Merlinlabs

Director, Mission Autonomy

Boston

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hirly's read of this role

Seniority
Director
Stated salary
$220,000 – $290,000 per year
Country
US
Work mode
On-site / unstated
First seen by hirly
28 Oct 2026

Derived automatically from the posting. Upload your resume above to see how the role scores against it.

the posting

Merlin (NASDAQ: MRLN) is a publicly traded aerospace and defense company building a non-human pilot to deliver full-stack autonomy for any aircraft from takeoff to touchdown. The Merlin Pilot autonomy system powers a growing range of aircraft and mission profiles and has been proven through hundreds of autonomous flights from Merlin's global flight test facilities, including Kerikeri, New Zealand; Smithfield, Rhode Island; and soon, Bedford, Massachusetts. Headquartered in Boston, Merlin is expanding its organization to accelerate the development and deployment of its autonomy platform, helping customers solve some of aviation's most pressing challenges, from pilot shortages to improving flight safety. Backed by some of the world's leading investors prior to its public listing, Merlin continues to advance the certification and commercialization of autonomous flight across commercial and defense aviation.

About You:

You are an accomplished and seasoned engineering leader with a strong background in developing, integrating, verifying, and delivering complex embedded software products. You have a proven ability to lead multidisciplinary software engineering organizations, establish rigorous development processes, and consistently deliver reliable, high-quality software into operational environments.

You combine deep software engineering expertise with an understanding of autonomous systems, AI-enabled applications, and the challenges of developing dependable software for safety-critical platforms. You understand how to architect software for modularity, scalability, performance, reliability, and maintainability, while maintaining rigorous standards for software testing, configuration management, and release discipline.

You are a firm believer in the potential of AI to solve some of the toughest problems in the domain you operate in and challenge the status quo by taking AI first approach to developing software solution design.

You have sufficient knowledge of aviation systems and operations to understand the environment in which your products operate, collaborate effectively with aviation domain experts, and make informed engineering decisions.

At Merlin, you will lead the engineering organization responsible for delivering the Mission Management Computer (MMC), the embedded software system that hosts Merlin's artificial airmanship capabilities. You will work closely with Feature Systems Engineering, Core AI, Core Compute, Vehicle Autonomy, and Flight Test to transform advanced autonomy technologies and mission requirements into integrated, production-quality airborne systems.

You are a strong technical and organizational leader who can build high-performing teams, develop engineering managers, establish clear accountability, and execute complex development programs with predictable quality and delivery.

Original posting on Merlinlabs's site ↗

Listed on hirly, a job board. hirly is not the employer: Merlinlabs is hiring for this role.

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