Software Architect

Location: Bangalore, India

Thales is a global technology leader trusted by governments, institutions, and enterprises to tackle their most demanding challenges. From quantum applications and artificial intelligence to cybersecurity and 6G innovation, our solutions empower critical decisions rooted in human intelligence. Operating at the forefront of aerospace and space, cybersecurity and digital identity, we’re driven by a mission to build a future we can all trust.

Present in India since 1953, Thales is headquartered in Noida and has other operational offices and sites spread across Delhi, Gurugram, Bengaluru and Mumbai, among others. Over 2200 employees are working with Thales and its joint ventures in India. Since the beginning, Thales has been playing an essential role in India’s growth story by sharing its technologies and expertise in Defence, Aerospace and Cyber & Digital sectors. Thales has two engineering competence centres in India - one in Noida focused on Cyber & Digital business, while the one in Bengaluru focuses on hardware, software and systems engineering capabilities for both the civil and defence sectors, serving global needs. The Group has also established an MRO (Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul) facility in Gurugram to provide comprehensive avionics maintenance and repair services to Indian airlines and support the growth of the local aviation industry.

We are seeking an experienced Software Architect for real-time embedded systems to lead architecture-quality decisions and provide certification-aligned technical leadership across the full software life cycle in DO-178C programs. This role is architecture-first: establishing and governing the technical approach (e.g., real-time partitioning, scheduling/timing, interface definitions, error handling and safety mechanisms), ensuring the architecture supports verification, traceability, and compliance, and guiding engineering teams through design reviews and certification readiness activities.

Job Responsibilities:

Architecture Ownership: Define the target software architecture for real-time embedded applications, including partitioning strategy, data/control flow, interface contracts, timing constraints, concurrency model (e.g., task scheduling, ISR interaction), and resource usage (CPU/memory/IO).

Real-Time Design & Verification Enablement: Guide development of design approaches that enable testability, including error handling, logging/telemetry strategy, fault containment, watchdog strategy, and deterministic behavior required for certification and operational robustness.

Design Reviews & Technical Leadership: Lead and participate in design reviews (architecture, detailed design, interface design), ensuring decisions are documented, justification is provided, and risks/gaps are addressed.

Problem Solving & Technical Guidance: Work with engineers to resolve architecture-level and integration issues, including performance bottlenecks, timing violations, concurrency/race conditions, and reliability shortcomings.

Software Development Life Cycle Leadership: Own/guide best practices across the software life cycle: planning, requirements refinement support, design/implementation standards, configuration management, and verification planning coordination.

DO-178C Certification Alignment & Traceability: Establish architecture and design practices that support DO-178C artifacts and traceability needs (requirements → high-level design → low-level design → code → verification evidence). Ensure verification feasibility at architecture level.

Collaboration Across International Teams: Work closely with distributed engineering teams, system engineers, product stakeholders, safety/certification teams, and verification teams. Ensure clear, timely communication and alignment in an international environment.

Mandatory Skills

Real-Time Embedded Architecture: Strong experience designing real-time embedded software architectures.

Certification Mindset (DO-178C): Demonstrated familiarity with DO-178C processes and expectations, including traceability and verification evidence concepts.

Programming Languages: Proficiency in C and/or C++ for embedded development and strong scripting skills (bash, python)

Software Engineering Fundamentals: Strong understanding of OOP, data structures, algorithms, and software design principles applied to embedded constraints.

Tooling & Configuration Management: Familiarity with GIT and software configuration management practices. Understanding of versioning, baselines, and controlled changes in regulated environments.

Coding Standards & Quality: Experience applying coding standards and practices that support deterministic behavior and maintainability.

Team & Mindset: Autonomy, technical excellence, strong communication, collaboration, problem-solving, and continuous improvement mindset

Desired Skills

AI-enabled development: Exposure to using AI tools/assistants to improve productivity and quality (e.g., code review assistance, test generation support, static analysis assistance, documentation/traceability support) while maintaining compliance with safety/certification processes.

Good experience with Test-Driven Development (TDD)

Experience in supporting CI/build automation for embedded projects (e.g., GitLab CI/CD).

Experience preparing technical documentation (architecture/design rationale, interface specs, error-handling/timing descriptions).

Qualification - Engineering Graduate

Work Experience - 12-17 years

At Thales, we’re committed to fostering a workplace where respect, trust, collaboration, and passion drive everything we do. Here, you’ll feel empowered to bring your best self, thrive in a supportive culture, and love the work you do. Join us, and be part of a team reimagining technology to create solutions that truly make a difference – for a safer, greener, and more inclusive world.