Founding Software Engineer

Navi captures everything a pilot sees and hears and turns it into automated debrief intelligence — sortie-level awareness that has never existed before. You're building the platform that makes that happen.

About the role

This is a founding engineering role. You'll own entire systems end to end — the backend and data pipelines that power Navi's AI, the interfaces instructors and squadron commanders depend on daily, the architecture decisions that take this company from startup to aviation standard. Your code ships to university flight schools and military squadrons. Nothing here is theoretical. Navi is live at Embry-Riddle, Purdue, UND, Sling Pilot Academy, and the United States Air Force.

What you'll do

Build and scale the backend and data infrastructure that powers Navi's AI platform

Work directly with pilots, instructors, and military operators to build tools that work in the cockpit and the classroom

Integrate flight dynamics, telemetry, and cockpit audio into intelligent debrief and training systems

Make the architecture calls that define how Navi scales — the frameworks, the infrastructure, the technical bets

Ship code that goes live in aircraft — then iterate on real operator feedback, not hypotheticals

Interface with engineers across the entire stack from hardware integration to AI/ML to frontend.

About you

5+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a track record of designing, building, and operating complex systems in production

Demonstrated ability to lead projects end to end — from scoping and technical design through implementation, launch, and iteration — with minimal direction

Deep expertise in at least one core area (backend systems, distributed infrastructure, data engineering, or full-stack development) and working fluency across others

Experience designing systems for scale, reliability, and performance — you've made meaningful architectural decisions and lived with the consequences

Strong engineering judgment: you know when to build, when to buy, and when to cut scope. You make pragmatic tradeoffs under real constraints

History of raising the bar for teams around you — through code reviews, technical mentorship, establishing best practices, or driving engineering culture

Comfortable operating in ambiguity and moving fast without sacrificing quality. You've shipped in environments where the roadmap wasn't fully defined

Experience with modern data pipelines, real-time systems, or AI/ML integration

You've built something from zero — a product, a startup, a system that people actually used

Experience with cloud infrastructure (AWS), CI/CD, containerization, and modern deployment tooling

Comfortable working directly with non-technical users and translating operator needs into engineering decisions

Nice to have

Familiarity with aviation systems, avionics data formats, or defense technology environments

Why this role matters

Pilots trust their lives to the systems in front of them. The intelligence platform we're building has to meet that same bar. As a founding engineer, your fingerprints will be on the architecture, the product, and the engineering culture at Navi.

What you'll get

Early-stage equity — real ownership in a category-defining company

Flight training — earn your pilot's license and build with true domain expertise

Impact you can see — your work will be used by pilots, flight schools, airlines, and the U.S. Air Force

A role that scales into technical leadership as we grow

How we work

Find a way. We don't wait for permission or perfect information. Ideas come from anywhere regardless of title. Figure it out, ship it, iterate.

Creativity over control. First principles over process. We'd rather have a creative solution that's 80% right today than a perfect one next quarter.

Update fast. Come in with a hypothesis, throw it away when the data says otherwise. Ego has no place here.

Intensity with focus. We work hard because the mission demands it. Clarity on what matters is how we make that sustainable.