Principal Software Engineer

At REGENT, we’re on a mission to revolutionize regional transportation between coastal cities. We're not just building vehicles, we're creating a new category of transportation: the Seaglider. These groundbreaking wing-in-ground-effect craft travel just above the water’s surface, combining the speed of an airplane with the low operating costs of a boat. Capable of 180 miles at 180 mph on today's battery tech (and up to 400 miles with next-gen batteries), Seagliders will unlock fast, affordable, and sustainable coastal transit for passengers and cargo - connecting cities, islands, and communities like never before.Backed by leading investors and powered by a team of passionate, forward-thinking engineers, builders, and operators, we’re now scaling from a breakthrough prototype to full production - and building the team to make it happen.Role OverviewREGENT is scaling from prototype Seagliders to Viceroy, our first certified production vehicle — and software is the connective tissue of every one of them. In this role as Principal Software Engineer, you will set software technical direction across REGENT's vehicle programs: the architecture patterns, engineering standards, and certification strategy that current vehicles and every future program draw on. On Viceroy, that means delivering the avionics software architecture as a whole — partitioning and redundancy, inter-subsystem interfaces and timing budgets, and the certification approach that turns a novel vehicle's software into an approvable one.This is a principal-level individual contributor role reporting directly to the Director of Software Engineering. You will work across integrated product teams, partner with each program's chief engineer on architecture and design reviews, and take on named program leadership assignments as the work demands. You will lead through architecture decisions, standards, and mentorship rather than an org chart — and you'll stay hands-on: this role designs, writes, and proves flight-critical software, not just diagrams.If you’re energized by working at the intersection of cutting-edge innovation, real-world impact, and hands-on engineering, you’ll be in the right place - and we’d be thrilled to have you on the team!What You'll DoSet software technical direction: architecture patterns, engineering standards, and certification approach built for reuse across programs.Own avionics software architecture: time/memory partitioning, criticality segregation, redundancy management and failover, inter-subsystem interfaces, and timing budgets — documented through a standing architecture decision practice.Partner across integrated product teams: the senior software voice on architecture compliance, interface control, and design reviews with each program's chief engineer.Drive the software certification strategy: plans, processes, and evidence across criticalities; lead staged reviews with classification-society and flag-state authorities through to approval, including serving as a program's named software certification lead.Lead software system integration: interface control across hardware and software, SIL/HIL campaigns on representative hardware, and vehicle-level integration milestones that produce certification evidence.Stay hands-on: design, implement, and verify flight-critical modules yourself.Establish standards and mentor: run design and code reviews; mentor senior engineers across teams.Qualify tools and supplier software: select and qualify development and verification tools; govern SOUP/COTS acceptance and supplier evidence.Advise engineering leadership on software architecture, certification risk, and build-vs-buy.What You'll BringIndustry expertise in safety-critical avionics: full-lifecycle RTCA DO-178C (ideally DAL A/B) — planning through verification and certification liaison.Vehicle-level architecture ownership on at least one aircraft, eVTOL, or UAS program.A certification track record: authored or owned core plans (PSAC/SDP/SVP-class), carried staged authority reviews to closure, engaged authorities directly in technical argumentation.Partitioned, redundancy-managed systems expertise: scheduling and WCET, voting and monitoring, health management, inter-processor communication.Strong embedded C/C++ on RTOS or bare metal.Deterministic avionics networking: ARINC 664/AFDX, TTP, CAN, DDS or equivalent; bandwidth/latency budgeting; interface control across redundant channels.Systems engineering fluency: requirements decomposition, interface control, hazard and criticality flowdown.Bonus: MATLAB/Simulink/Embedded Coder; multi-program technical direction; chief-engineer or deputy-CE experience; autonomy or flight-management (FMS, RNP, DAA); RTCA/EUROCAE participation; DO-330/DO-331; maritime or classification-society exposure; remote operations / ground control systems; standing up software process from scratch at a small company.Who We're Looking ForTechnical Leader: You set technical direction while staying close enough to the work to know whether it holds up in practice. You make thoughtful architectural decisions with integration, testing, safety, and certification in mind — and measure a good architecture by how well it performs in the real system, not how elegant it looks on paper.Collaborative Force Multiplier: You make the engineers and teams around you better. You lead through technical judgment, evidence, standards, and mentorship rather than authority, building alignment across teams while respecting the ownership of the engineers and technical leads you work with.Safety & Systems Mindset: You think about how software will be tested, verified, and ultimately proven safe from the beginning. You design for verifiability rather than treating it as something to address later, and understand how software architecture, requirements, interfaces, testing, and evidence come together to support a credible safety and certification case.Creative Problem Solver: You’re comfortable tackling complex technical problems where the path forward isn’t already defined. You break ambiguity into tractable decisions, identify the highest-risk assumptions early, and create enough technical clarity for teams to move forward without pretending every question has already been answered.Adaptable & Agile: You’re energized by the challenge of building and certifying a new category of vehicle where the technology, requirements, and certification approach are evolving together. You can operate effectively through uncertainty, adapt as new information emerges, and balance long-term architectural thinking with what the team needs to build and prove today.If you’re ready to take on an exciting challenge, grow with us, and make a lasting impact, we want to hear from you. Even if you don’t meet every requirement, but you see yourself contributing to our mission, we encourage you to apply! We value diverse skillsets and experiences and believe in the potential of passionate individuals to make a big impact.Equal Opportunity EmployerREGENT is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive work environment. Employment decisions are made without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, or any other characteristic protected by law. LocationNorth Kingstown, Rhode Island, USAEmployment TypeFull timeLocation TypeOn-siteDepartmentEngineering & TechnologySoftware