Communications & Networking Engineer (Mesh / RF / Edge Systems)

Arlo Industries is building next-generation aerial sensing systems for counter-UAS and ISR, designed to outperform traditional radar at a fraction of the cost using distributed, passive optical sensing networks.

Backed by Y Combinator and defence-focused angels, the company is actively working with partners across US and Europe to secure airspaces for critical infrastructure and defence applications.

Company

Arlo Industries is building the sensing infrastructure layer for the drone age.

We build distributed passive optical sensing systems for tracking drones and missiles.

Our systems combine edge AI, optics, and distributed networking to create persistent aerial awareness without relying on traditional emitting radars.

We are a YC-backed defence tech startup operating across the US, Europe, and Ukraine.

Role

We are looking for an engineer to own the networking and communications layer across our distributed sensing nodes.

What you will work on

• Design networking architectures for distributed sensor systems
• Build resilient mesh and hybrid communications infrastructure
• Integrate 5G, sub-GHz mesh protocols, and SATCOM systems
• Develop low-latency node-to-node data pipelines
• Design systems resilient to packet loss, interference, and degraded connectivity
• Work on synchronisation, coordination, and distributed state across nodes
• Participate in field deployments and testing

You are a strong fit if you

• Have built networking systems for constrained hardware
• Understand RF and networking tradeoffs in real deployments
• Have shipped embedded networking or firmware systems
• Think deeply about resilience and failure modes
• Want to work on difficult real-world systems

Bonus

• Tactical networking or defense communications background
• SATCOM experience (Starlink, Iridium, etc.)
• Distributed systems synchronisation experience
• Familiarity with EW or contested RF environments

Compensation

• San Francisco, CA: $150k–250k USD
• Troy, NY: $140k–200k USD
• Helsinki: €85k–140k EUR
• Kyiv: $45k–90k USD

We work on hard problems at the intersection of computational imaging, distributed systems, and ruggedised hardware. The constraints are adversarial: no reliable infrastructure, contested spectrum (jamming), and SnR limits.

• Intro call (30 min)
• Technical screen: distributed comms or networking architecture problem (60–90 min)
• Deep dive: walk through a system you built, what broke, what you would do differently
• Reference check + offer