Principal Software Engineer

CHAOS Industries is redefining modern defense with omniscient systems purpose-built for today’s realities. Designed and built by top U.S. military veterans and Silicon Valley innovators, CHAOS Industries’ products are powered by Coherent Distributed Networks (CDN™), empowering warfighters, commercial air operators, and border protection teams to act faster, adapt rapidly, and stay ahead of evolving threats. In a world where technological threats move at unprecedented speed, CHAOS Industries delivers advanced sensing and detection solutions that give the ultimate advantage: time.

CHAOS Industries was founded in 2022 and has raised $1B in total funding from leading investors including 8VC, Accel, and NEA. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and London. For more information, please visit

Role Overview:

CHAOS is seeking a highly-skilled and motivated Principal Software Engineer to join our team supporting our R&D and product engineering initially focusing on our next-generation radar products. This is a highly collaborative role which will allow you to work on multiple capabilities within our product offerings. As a member of our engineering team, you also have the opportunity to expand your skillset across our product families.

Responsibilities:

• Research & Development (R&D) and Production software development for our next-generation radar products
• Support system integration of software on hardware (mostly commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware)
• Support deployed software capabilities in the hands of our U.S. and international customers
• Work full-time on-site in our office in Los Angeles (El Segundo), California

Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelor’s or higher Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related degree
• 5+ years of experience in professional, object-oriented software development
• Extensive/advanced Python experience
• Experience with Agile lifecycle processes including Scrum, Continuous Integration, and Test-Driven Development Methodologies
• Ability to work with minimal supervision and collaborate on small teams
• Solid understanding and extensive experience in software development using Linux
• U.S. Person status is required as this position will require the ability to access U.S.-only data systems

Preferred Requirements:

• Experience with HW/SW I&T and V&V of high-TRL systems
• Experience with production-level SW development & deployment, including DevOps, DevSecOps, and/or Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) using modern FOSS/COTS toolsets.
• Experience with SW development tools enforcing SW-development best practices (e.g. linting, code coverage, code quality/security scanning, doc gen, etc.)
• Experience with Networks (software and hardware)
• Experience with CUDA/JAX
• Experience with Software-Defined Radios (SDRs) (e.g. Ettus)
• Experience developing near-real-time systems
• Experience with additional languages such as C++, Rust, NodeJS, Java, Go, etc.
• Experience with git
• Experience with Containers (e.g. Docker, Podman, etc.)

Why CHAOS?

• Health Benefits: Medical, dental, and vision benefits 100% paid for by the company
• Additional benefits : 401k (+ 50% company match up to 6% of pay), FSA, HSA, life insurance, and more
• Our Perks: Free daily lunch, ‘No meeting Fridays’, unlimited PTO, casual dress code
• Compensation Components: Competitive base salaries, generous pre-IPO stock option grants, relocation assistance, and (coming soon!) annual bonuses
• Team Growth: 200 employees and counting across 5 global offices

Salary range: $180,000 - $290,000

The stated compensation range reflects only the targeted base compensation range and excludes additional earnings such as bonus, equity, and benefits. If your compensation requirements fall outside of the range, we still encourage you to apply. The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a range of compensation factors, inclusive of base salary only. Actual salary offer may vary based on (but not limited to) work experience, education and/or training, critical skills, and/or business considerations.

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