Communications & Networking Engineer (Mesh / RF / Edge Systems)
at Arlo Industries — Track drones and missiles without radars - Accurate, Passive, Scalable
What the role involves
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
What they ask for
About Arlo Industries
Arlo Industries is building a network of sensors that precisely tracks stealthy drones and aerial threats better than radars. This capability does not exist yet because traditional radars are built on past war doctrines designed to protect single, centralised assets. Modern warfare, however, demands wide-area, persistent coverage that is both passive and economically scalable. By utilising a mesh architecture, Arlo Industries unlocks unprecedented asymmetric economics. The network is fundamentally built to scale: the cost of adding sensors grows linearly, but the tracking accuracy increases exponentially, delivering highly resilient, persistent coverage for a fraction of the cost of legacy systems. Deo founded Arlo Industries after spending over 6 years in the Israeli defence ecosystem, where he lived through multiple conflicts and experienced the Iron Dome and other systems in action against ICBMs and the infamous Shahed drones. Learning exactly how these defence systems could be improved after a Shahed exploded close to his apartment, he built Arlo Industries around the core philosophy that conflict should be concise & precise. The people behind Arlo1 includes a PhD in drones and autonomy and military experts. Arlo Industries has actively showcased this technology directly to Ukrainian militaries on the frontlines, as well as to operators across Europe and the USA.
Full Arlo Industries profile