The posting
Location: Onsite — Austin, TX
Employment Type: Direct Hire, Full-Time
Job Title: Integration Engineer
About 9 Mothers
The modern battlefield has changed. Cheap, autonomous suicide drones have turned the tactical advantage upside down, and the world is looking for a solution. At 9 Mothers, we aren’t just "innovating"—we are building the shield.
Backed by top-tier investors, we develop AI powered machines designed to intercept and neutralize Group 1/sUAS threats in real-time. Our flagship product is a low-power, counter-drone system built for the edge—on vehicles, at bases, or in a soldier's pack.
Why 9 Mothers?
While others build for "awareness" or "long-term research," we build for the immediate survival of those in harm’s way. We are a team of hackers, engineers, and mission-driven builders who value field-ready capability over polished slide decks. If you want to see your code or hardware in the field next month—not next year—this is your playground.
Position Summary
9 Mothers is hiring an Integration Engineer to connect our counter-drone platform with the broader ecosystem of systems our customers already run. In this role, you will design, build, and maintain integrations between our product and third-party enterprise and mission systems—most notably Command and Control (C2) platforms—so that our detection, tracking, and defeat capabilities plug cleanly into a customer's existing operational picture.
You will own the full integration lifecycle: understanding partner and customer system interfaces, defining data and messaging contracts, building and testing the integration, and supporting it through deployment in the field. This role sits at the intersection of software engineering, systems integration, and customer-facing technical work in a fast-moving defense startup environment.
Essential Duties
- C2 & Third-Party Platform Integration: Design, build, and maintain integrations between our counter-drone system and external platforms, including Command and Control (C2) systems, sensor networks, and other mission systems used by our customers and partners.
- API & Interface Development: Develop and maintain APIs, data feeds, and messaging interfaces (REST, SOAP, pub/sub, and similar) that expose our system's detection, tracking, and status data to external platforms in a reliable, low-latency manner.
- Protocol & Standards Work: Implement and troubleshoot military and industry-standard data formats and messaging protocols (e.g., Cursor-on-Target, Link 16, VMF, TAK/ATAK, or comparable interoperability standards) as required by customer and partner systems.
- Requirements & Interface Definition: Work directly with customers, partners, and internal engineering teams to gather integration requirements, define interface control documents (ICDs), and translate operational needs into technical specifications.
- Testing & Validation: Build and execute integration test plans, including simulation and hardware-in-the-loop testing, to verify correctness, timing, and reliability of data exchange between systems before and during field deployment.
- Field & Customer Support: Support integration efforts during customer demonstrations, pilots, and field deployments, troubleshooting issues across the full stack—from our system, through the network, to the receiving platform.
- Documentation: Produce and maintain clear integration documentation, interface specifications, and runbooks for internal teams and external partners.
Requirements
- Integration Experience: 5+ years of hands-on experience as an integration engineer, systems integration engineer, or similar role, integrating software products with external enterprise systems.
- Enterprise Integration Fundamentals: Strong working knowledge of APIs (REST/SOAP), messaging and pub/sub systems, data serialization formats (JSON, XML, Protobuf), and general middleware/integration patterns.
- Programming & Tooling: Proficient in at least one modern programming language commonly used for integration work (e.g., Python, Kotlin, C++, or C#), with the ability to read and write production-quality integration code.
- Systems Troubleshooting: Comfortable diagnosing issues across the network, application, and data layers when an integration isn’t behaving as expected—strong understanding of TCP/IP networking and system-level debugging.
- Independence & Ownership: Resourceful self-starter comfortable working directly with customers and partners, owning ambiguous integration problems end-to-end, and navigating shifting priorities in a fast-moving startup environment.
- Compliance: This position requires access to export-controlled information under ITAR. Only U.S. citizens are permitted. Must be willing to submit a background check.
Nice-to-Have
- Military C2 Experience: Direct experience integrating with Command and Control (C2) systems or other military mission systems, including familiarity with formats/protocols such as Cursor-on-Target, Link 16, VMF, STANAG (4586, TDL, etc), or TAK/ATAK
- Development Environment Experience: Familiarity with Android Studio (for ATAK development) and Visual Studio (for Windows-based C2 integration)
- Defense Industry Background: Experience working in a regulated, ITAR, CMMC, or compliance-bound defense environment, or prior experience at a defense contractor or with DoD customers
- Sensor & C-UAS Familiarity: Experience working with radar, EO/IR, RF, or other sensor data, telemetry streams, or counter-UAS/counter-drone systems
- Clearance: Active security clearance or eligibility to obtain one
Benefits
- Meaningful Early Equity: You aren’t just an employee; you are a foundational owner. Your contributions directly drive the value of your stake in the company.
- Direct Roadmap Influence: Forget the bureaucracy of big defense. You will have a seat at the table, directly shaping our product and technology trajectory from day one.
- Mission-Critical Work: We don’t build for "what if." We build systems the Department of War actively needs to counter immediate, real-world threats.
- The Builder’s Playground: Work in a brand-new lab fully optimized for rapid prototyping, equipped with NVIDIA Jetsons, high-end scopes, and 3-D printers.
- 100% Employer-Paid Premiums: We cover 100% of your medical, dental, and vision insurance premiums and cover 50% of healthcare premiums for your dependents.
- Unlimited PTO: We value results, not clock-watching. Take the time you need to stay sharp and recharge.
- Zero Red Tape: You report to the founders. You have the autonomy to make technical decisions that would take months of committee approval at a larger firm.
- Austin-Based Culture: Join an onsite team in Austin, TX, where we prioritize high-bandwidth collaboration and rapid field-testing.
- Relocation Assistance: We want the best talent in the room. If you aren’t in Austin yet, we'll help you get here, to make your transition to the Silicon Hills seamless.
About the interview
1. Initial Screening with recruiter - 30 min phone call
2. 1st Round Virtual Interview - peer engineer + either Director or CTO (1.5hr via MS Teams)
3. 2nd Round Onsite Interview - CTO + Director + VP + peer(s) (~ 6 hours in-person) **will fly out candidates that are not local
4. Reference checks & offer
9 Mothers Policy on the Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) During the Interview Process
The interviewing process is a mutual opportunity for us to get to know each other better. Our goal is to understand your unique background, evaluate your problem-solving abilities, and ensure a strong mutual fit.
AI is a core part of how we work at 9 Mothers—we actively encourage and frequently leverage AI tools in our day-to-day operations. However, during the hiring process, we need to evaluate your fundamental skills and expertise, not the outputs of an AI model.
To ensure a fair and transparent process, we ask that you adhere to the following interview guidelines:
- 1st-Round Interviews (No AI Allowed): The use of AI tools, assistants, code generation tools, or real-time copilots is strictly prohibited during all first-round interviews and assessments. The use of AI during this stage will result in immediate disqualification from the hiring process.
- 2nd-Round Interviews (Guided AI Usage): The second-round process includes opportunities to utilize AI. Your interview team will provide explicit guidance on how, when, and which AI tools to leverage during this stage.
We appreciate your cooperation in helping us maintain an authentic and fair interview experience for everyone.
