The Role

As a Drone Systems Engineer at Kova Labs, you’ll work across the full spectrum of our technology, designing hardware, building electronics, writing control logic, and making sure everything works together as one reliable system. It’s a deeply hands-on, multidisciplinary role at the core of our product.

You’ll be prototyping components in CAD one day, wiring up sensor arrays the next, and tuning control algorithms in the field the day after. Your job is to make autonomy real: connecting perception with movement, software with hardware, and ideas with physical systems that can fly, operate, and survive in the toughest conditions on Earth.

This is a role for builders: for people who get excited by messy problems, who love jumping between mechanics, electronics, and software, and who care about shipping working robots into the real world. If you’re a generalist with a robotics, mechatronics, or hardware background, and you want to work on machines that actually matter, you’ll feel at home here.

What You'll Do

• Design, prototype, and iterate core hardware components, from mechanical structures and sensor mounts to full system assemblies
• Build, integrate, and test sensor and electronics systems, ensuring robust performance in harsh, contested environments.
• Develop control and actuation logic in C++, Python, or Rust.
• Own troubleshooting and rapid problem-solving during field tests, diagnosing failures, hacking quick fixes, and iterating on the fly.
• Support flight testing, validation, and deployment of systems in real-world conditions.
• Contribute directly to shaping the overall system architecture, helping define how our drones are built, maintained, and scaled.
• Ensuring compliance with safety and regulatory standards.

What We're Looking for

This is a very generalist role, and we don't expect you to know everything. More important is your capability to learn and adapt new skills.

• Background in robotics, mechatronics, mechanical/electrical engineering, or a related field.
• Experience designing and building physical robotic systems, ideally ones that have been tested or deployed outside the lab.
• Proficiency with CAD tools and comfort working hands-on with mechanical prototypes, sensors, and electronics.
• Experience writing control or actuation software (in C++, Python, or Rust) and integrating hardware with autonomy software.
• Strong debugging instincts, you enjoy finding and fixing mechanical, electrical, and control issues under time pressure.
• A generalist mindset, you’re excited by variety, comfortable wearing many hats, and care deeply about getting working systems into the field.
• Willingness to be in the loop from design to deployment: you want to build, test, fly, and fix, not just hand work off.