Senior Software Engineer — Base Protection

Description

Kela is a defense technology startup. We solve the most critical challenges in defense against aerial threats. We are building next-generation command & control systems - secure, real-time platforms that fuse sensors and AI into battlefield intelligence. Backed by leading investors, built by Israeli innovators.

The Base Protection team defends bases against aerial threats like hostile drones and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). We detect these threats in advance, fuse multiple sensors to create an accurate live map, and orchestrate real-time, automated countermeasures to bring down threats out of the sky before they reach their target.

Responsibilities

• Own and evolve the backend architecture of real-time C2 systems - designing for high availability, low latency, and resilience in the field.
• Build and improve automated sensor and drone control pipelines, from raw data ingestion to fused, actionable threat intelligence.
• Integrate new hardware — radars, cameras, drones, counter-drone systems — translating vendor protocols into reliable, real-time data.
• Harden systems for unattended operation across on-prem, edge, and cloud environments.
• Own problems end-to-end: from the first field report through root cause and deployment.

Requirements

• 5+ years building production backend systems in either Rust, Python, C++, Go, or similar.
• Strong sense of ownership: you take problems from the first report to a fix in the field.
• Thrive while working both independently and in a team.
• Able to work in a high-paced environment focused on rapid innovation during critical project phases.

Nice to have:

• Experience or familiarity with the Rust programming language
• gRPC/protobuf, geospatial, or sensor integration experience.
• Hands-on networking experience for connecting hardware sensors and effectors to backend platforms.
• Real-time or event-driven systems — streaming data, concurrency, low latency.
• Background in defense, robotics, autonomy, or other mission-critical systems.
• Experience with reliable, production-grade, on-prem and cloud deployments.