Company Description:

Stratum Defense Technology LLP is an Indian defence technology company building autonomous systems for the Indian armed forces. We are not a software consultancy, not a drone company pivoting to maritime, and not a proposal exercise. We are building hardware. Complex, safety-critical, sovereign hardware that India does not yet have.

Our flagship programme is Project MAKARA, India's first indigenous Multi-Mission Autonomous Undersea Vehicle (AUV). MAKARA is designed to give the Indian Navy persistent covert underwater surveillance, distributed acoustic sensor network deployment, anti-submarine warfare coordination, and precision undersea strike capability, all from a single autonomous platform that carries no foreign weapon dependency.

We are headquartered in New Delhi with programme operations at Visakhapatnam, co-located with NSTL and the Eastern Naval Command. We are at the founding team stage. The people joining now will be present at every significant milestone: ADITI 4 award, NSTL MoU signing, the first time the hull comes back from MTAR, the NSTL towing tank campaigns, and the Indian Navy sea trials.

Role Description:

You will write the firmware that makes Project MAKARA's acoustic network function. Specifically: the TDMA acoustic MAC protocol running on EvoLogics acoustic modem hardware, the sensor node firmware on STM32H755, AES-256-GCM encryption across all acoustic command frames, and the safety-critical DO-178C DAL-A Fire Control Unit state machine that is the highest-criticality software in the vehicle.

The DISC 14 proof-of-concept (EMDock prototype and 8-node acoustic mesh demonstration) is the first major deliverable this role drives. The acoustic mesh needs to work in a pool with 16 nodes, MIGM message types active, and two-factor authentication functioning before the DISC 14 milestone gate. After that, the role transitions to SACE reactive layer qualification (DO-178C DAL-C) and FCU qualification (DO-178C DAL-A).

What you will do:

• Design, implement, and test TDMA acoustic MAC protocol firmware on EvoLogics S2C M HS modem embedded processor, including 16-slot frame structure and GPS-disciplined synchronisation
• Develop sensor node firmware for Project Makara (STM32H755, Zone A-E architecture per NSTL Varughese 2014 design)
• Implement AES-256-GCM encryption and HMAC-SHA256 two-factor authentication on all acoustic command frames
• Own SACE reactive layer embedded software to DO-178C DAL-C standard on INTEGRITY-178 RTOS with ARINC-653 partitioning
• Develop FCU launch-enable state machine to DO-178C DAL-A standard (most safety-critical software in MAKARA)
• Lead sub-system bench testing: FCU hardware isolation test, TDMA 4-node bench test, 16-node pool acoustic mesh validation

Qualifications:

Essential:

• BTech or MTech in Electronics, Electrical, or Computer Science
• Minimum 3 years C/C++ embedded development on ARM-based microcontrollers
• RTOS experience: FreeRTOS, Zephyr, or commercial RTOS
• Serial communications protocols: UART, SPI, I2C, CAN
• Experience integrating digital signal processing or acoustic/RF signal chain hardware

Beneficial:

• DO-178C DAL-A or DAL-C qualification experience
• INTEGRITY-178 or VxWorks RTOS background
• AUV, ROV, sonar, or acoustic modem integration experience
• Cryptographic library implementation: AES-GCM, HMAC-SHA256
• DRDO CAIR, NPOL, or naval acoustic systems background

What we offer:

• Work on a programme that does not exist anywhere else in India
• Direct access to NSTL Visakhapatnam test facilities and DRDO research community
• Founding team equity consideration for senior hires
• Competitive salary benchmarked to Chennai and Visakhapatnam defence-adjacent market
• Hybrid working: in-person at Chennai or Visakhapatnam for critical milestones, flexible otherwise
• Full involvement in iDEX ADITI 4 from award through prototype and Indian Navy acceptance

To apply: send your CV and a short note on your relevant experience to Send your CV/Resume and a short note on your CFD solver experience and any towing tank or cavitation tunnel work to Rajitkh@stratumdefensetechnology.com. Subject line: JD02 – Embeded Systems & Firmware Engineer

Pay: ₹401,712.20 - ₹1,561,126.88 per year

Work Location: In person