--- title: 'Software Engineer at Salient Motion' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-salient-motion-hawthorne-tm159c27v6mt' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-10-27' --- # Software Engineer at Salient Motion - **Company:** Salient Motion - **Location:** Hawthorne, CA - **Posted:** 2026-10-20 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-27 - **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/salientmotion/jobs/5459241008 ## Job description **Applicants must be U.S. Citizens or U.S. Permanent Residents (Green Card holders) to meet customer and regulatory requirements** Who We Are We are pioneering modular motion technologies to power the next generation of innovation for Industrial, Aerospace and Defense. If you're excited about disrupting legacy industries, and passionate about motor control technology, let's chat! We are at the forefront of innovation, crafting exclusive motion control components that propel the industrial, aerospace, and defense sectors into the future. A couple other things: - We are open to relocating you - We have great benefits - We are well funded, and already generating revenue - We are located in beautiful Hawthorne, CA and just moved into a new large hangar facility About the role: We need an embedded software engineer who can work across firmware and hardware. This is not a pure software role - the candidate will use oscilloscopes, read schematics, and debug board-level issues alongside writing C code. What you'll do: You'll be part of our growing Software Engineering team by building and scaling our web-based telemetry and diagnostics platform—our window into the performance of next-generation motor controllers and electromechanical systems. You'll work with a passionate team of firmware, hardware, and systems engineers to build tools that bridge embedded systems with intuitive, real-time interfaces. - Develop and scale our web application - Create intuitive data visualizations for real-time and historical motor telemetry - Design and maintain scalable backend APIs and data pipelines to support diagnostics and remote logging features - Work closely with embedded engineers to define protocols and telemetry schema - Ensure our tools are robust, responsive, and easy to use across devices and platforms - Own features end-to-end—from concept and design to deployment and ongoing iteration - Collaborate with designers to bring clean and thoughtful UI/UX to life - Drive the software development process by contributing to system architecture, documentation, and requirements - Partner with mechanical and hardware engineers to design and implement system-level qualification and development tests - Architect and deploy test fixtures and automated test infrastructure - Develop data analysis pipelines and pass/fail criteria for hardware validation What you need: - BS or MS in Computer Science, Engineering, or equivalent industry experience - 2+ years as a software engineer with frontend and backend experience, ideally in a product-focused environment - Strong experience with TypeScript and React - Experience with Electron desktop application development - Experience with Firebase (Authentication, Firestore, Cloud Functions) - Solid backend experience using Node.js or Python; Python experience for test scripting and data analysis is a plus - Experience designing and building REST or WebSocket APIs - Experience working with real-time data, time-series databases, or - WebSocket streams - Familiarity with Figma and experience collaborating closely with designers - Strong UX instincts and a passion for building clean, usable interfaces - A bias for action—you like to take ownership and move fas Nice to haves: - Experience building UI dashboards for hardware systems - Experience with DevOps, CI/CD pipelines, or Vite - Familiarity with WebHID/WebUSB or binary protocol communication with hardware devices - A hacker's mindset: curious, resourceful, and always looking to improve tools What we have to offer: We are not just building components. We are reshaping the future of the Aerospace and Defense component industry, which is a $300B+ market! Come join us and help build next generation systems that will make a massive impact at global scale. - We offer competitive compensation: $130,000 to $160,000 base salary + equity - Exceptional healthcare benefits, Medical is 100% covered by the company - Flexible PTO - 401K - More to come! ## About Salient Motion ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Salient Motion designs and manufactures critical electromechanical actuation systems for commercial aviation and defense, replacing legacy supply chains with modular, software-defined motion control. - **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage) - **Headquarters**: Torrance, California, USA - **Founded**: 2022 - **Founders**: Vishaal Mali (CEO) ## Core Business - **Primary Industry**: Aviation and Aerospace Component Manufacturing, Defense - **Target Customers**: OEMs (e.g., Boeing), MROs, and defense contractors for commercial airliners and military platforms (B2B, Enterprise) - **Mission**: To change the paradigm of legacy aerospace and defense supply chains, unlocking a new era of speed, innovation, and possibility. ## Products & Services - **Critical Actuation Systems**: Advanced electromechanical actuators (linear and rotary) for flight control, landing gear, and other mission-critical functions on commercial and military aircraft. - **Software-First Architecture**: A modular, software-defined actuation platform that decouples control logic from hardware. Core motor control software is certified to DO-178C standards as a reusable library, enabling rapid configuration and validation across platforms. - **Certification Services**: Certification-centric engineering built from day one, aiming for up to 10x reductions in cost and lead time for certifiable products. - **Support & Sustainment**: Direct, fast, and personal support for integration, troubleshooting, and sustainment of actuation systems. ## Market Standing - **Valuation**: Not disclosed - **Key Metric**: Total Funding of **$4.0M** (Seed round led by Cantos VC in October 2024, with participation from AE Ventures and Ian Rountree; a Pre-Seed round occurred in November 2022) - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Cantos (Lead), AE Ventures, Ian Rountree. Key customer/partner: **Boeing** (collaborating on certifying modular actuators for commercial airliners). - **Growth Signals**: Headcount of ~30 employees with +15.2% monthly growth; talent sourced from Anduril Industries, Boeing, Virgin Galactic, and other top aerospace/defense firms; active job postings increasing +200% month-over-month; expansion to a second office in Irvine, CA. ## Competitive Advantages - **Software-First Modularity**: Their core differentiator is a software-defined architecture that is certified as a reusable library (DO-178C). This allows for rapid, low-cost configuration for different aircraft platforms, offering a 10x improvement in lead time and cost over legacy suppliers. - **Vertically Integrated Supply Chain**: Streamlined engineering workflows and vertically integrated partnerships enable delivery of actuator systems in weeks, not quarters. - **Certification-First Approach**: All systems are designed with certification in mind from day one, drastically reducing the time and cost to achieve airworthiness. - **Legacy Disruption**: They offer a direct alternative to high-cost, slow-moving legacy OEM suppliers, providing certified solutions without overhead markup. ## Strategic Focus - **Scale Production**: Moving from design and prototyping to manufacturing and delivery at scale, as evidenced by hiring for Senior Manufacturing Engineer and Quality Manager roles. - **Expand Customer Base**: Deepening the partnership with Boeing while expanding to other commercial and defense OEMs. - **Domestic Supply Chain**: Developing motors and inverters using domestic resources to meet national security imperatives. - **Platform Development**: Refining their core "electric motion operating system," including standalone inverters, web-based configuration platforms, and performant motors. ## Why Work Here - **High-Impact Work**: Employees solve some of the hardest motion control challenges in aerospace and defense, with work that directly impacts millions of daily passengers. - **Culture**: Described as a high-velocity environment emphasizing "Extreme Entrepreneurship," "Execution Over Excuses," and "Mastery Over Ego." The culture values ownership, creativity, and a relentless focus on execution. - **Strong Talent Pool**: Team includes veterans from Anduril, Boeing, Virgin Galactic, and SpaceX, providing a steep learning curve and high-performance peer group. - **Work Policy**: **In-Office** (Torrance, CA and Irvine, CA). The company explicitly values in-person collaboration. - **Growth Trajectory**: Early-stage (Seed) with rapid headcount growth, offering significant upside and career acceleration for early employees. ## Sources 1. [salientmotion.com](https://salientmotion.com/) 2. [salientmotion.com](https://salientmotion.com/careers) 3. [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/salient-motion) 4. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/salient-motion) ## Other roles at Salient Motion - [Mechanical Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-salient-motion-hawthorne-tvttfw9t2gsv) — Hawthorne, CA - [Mechanical Test Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-test-engineer-salient-motion-hawthorne-g15ay9phvkef) — Hawthorne, CA - [Mechanical Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-salient-motion-saginaw-8dj6e44vrwkb) — Saginaw, MI - [Senior Power Electronics Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-power-electronics-engineer-salient-motion-hawthorne-4yn1dr63rg99) — Hawthorne, CA - [Engineering Co-op](https://feeny.ai/job/engineering-co-op-salient-motion-hawthorne-5rzzp0jrk03p) — Hawthorne, CA - [Senior Mechanical Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-mechanical-engineer-salient-motion-hawthorne-knkd3cv93mx2) — Hawthorne, CA - [Electrical Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/electrical-engineer-salient-motion-hawthorne-05jbnk1ckz9w) — Hawthorne, CA - [People Operations Generalist](https://feeny.ai/job/people-operations-generalist-salient-motion-hawthorne-21ejkdqd2ggd) — Hawthorne, CA - [Controls Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/controls-engineer-salient-motion-hawthorne-ne6rfv91cwrf) — Hawthorne, CA - [Global Supply Chain Manager- Electronics](https://feeny.ai/job/global-supply-chain-manager-electronics-salient-motion-hawthorne-gcm3vx04a36d) — Hawthorne, CA