We are now looking for an Autopilot Firmware Engineer to join our Nokia Drone Networks team in Espoo, Finland. You will develop and maintain mission-critical embedded software that enables safe, reliable, and scalable autonomous drone operations. In this role, you will own firmware features end-to-end—from design and implementation to verification, flight-test support, and release-quality documentation.

We are at the forefront of leading agile technologies, consistently adopting the latest advancements to strategically integrate intelligent robotics and intelligent networks into real-life projects. Our multi-cultural team fosters a dynamic, agile, and start-up-like culture. We prioritize responsiveness and flexibility, while also maintaining the capability for structured approaches to meet diverse customer needs.

Must-have:

• Fluent C/C++ skills with hands-on embedded development experience (RTOS, drivers, performance tuning, debugging).
• Solid understanding of embedded systems fundamentals (interrupts, timing, concurrency, memory constraints, hardware interfaces).
• Experience with drones, robotics, or safety-critical control systems, including practical exposure to logs/telemetry-driven debugging.
• 3–5 years of relevant professional experience in embedded firmware development.
• Fluent English (written and spoken).

Nice-to-Have:

• Familiarity with PX4/Ardu Pilot, MAVLink/MAVSDK, or similar robotics middleware and protocols.

• Experience with sensor calibration, navigation/estimation concepts, or flight-control related subsystems.

• Exposure to embedded Linux bring-up, device trees, or kernel/user-space interfaces.

• Security-minded development (secure boot concepts, signing, basic crypto hygiene).

• Willingness to travel occasionally to support integration and flight test activities.

• Design and implement autopilot firmware components in C/C++ (RTOS / bare-metal / embedded Linux where applicable), focusing on safety, determinism, and performance.

• Develop and maintain low-level drivers and interfaces for sensors and peripherals (e.g., IMU, GNSS, barometer, magnetometer, range sensors; PWM/CAN/UART/SPI/I2C).

• Own the debug & verification loop: create test plans, write unit/integration tests, analyze flight logs/telemetry, and drive root-cause analysis through to fix and validation.

• Collaborate tightly with systems, autonomy, and hardware teams to integrate new sensors/compute platforms, support bring-up, and improve flight robustness across real customer environments.

• Improve engineering excellence: contribute to coding standards, CI/CD for firmware, release readiness, and clear technical documentation for long-term maintainability.