Merlin Tech Stack

AI-powered autonomous flight operating system for military and civil aircraft

Software Development Boston, MA 51–200 employees Founded 2019 Privately Held

Merlin builds autonomous flight software for defense and aerospace customers, running on a classical avionics stack (MATLAB, Simulink, C/C++) layered with cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure, GCP) and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes). The tech mix reveals a company bridging legacy flight-control domains with modern DevOps — a tension reflected in their hiring velocity: 36 open engineering roles across senior and leadership tiers, with acute pain points around safety-critical autonomy development, crew-cost reduction, and scaling certification processes.

Tech Stack 63 technologies

Core StackMATLAB Python SolidWorks CATIA Figma Sketch AWS Terraform CloudFormation Docker Kubernetes Linux Ansible MySQL MariaDB Simulink C/C++ ARINC 429 RS-232 RS-422 RS-485 Onshape Fusion Creo Jama Connect Qt Adobe XD Azure GCP Git+30 more

AdoptingDocker Kubernetes

What Merlin Is Building

◆Challenges

Reducing crew costs
Reducing crew requirements
Developing safety-critical autonomy software
Enabling autonomous flight
Integration and certification challenges
Managing cross-program risks
Scaling high-impact defense programs
Autonomy system testing
Scaling autonomous flight team
Recruiting top talent in competitive markets

▲Active Projects

Avionics systems integration for aircraft autonomy system
Flight test process development
Autonomy systems flight testing
Electrical systems requirements and load analysis for prototyping and certification
System-level verification and validation
Cots/mots subsystem integration
Systems-integration labs and flight-test instrumentation
Flight and mission autonomy
Onboard and off-board airborne perception capabilities
Electrical design and fabrication documentation for partners and vendors

Hiring Activity

Accelerating50 roles · 25 in 30d

Department

Engineering

Ops

Design

Finance

Legal

Seniority

Senior

Director

Staff

Mid

Lead

Junior

Manager

Notable leadership hires: Flight Test Director

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About Merlin

Merlin is an autonomous flight software company founded in 2019 and based in Boston. The platform operates across multiple aircraft types and serves military and civil aviation programs, with $100M+ in awarded defense contracts backing hundreds of autonomous flights. The engineering-heavy footprint (36 open roles) spans avionics systems integration, flight test development, electrical design, and onboard/off-board perception capabilities. Current hiring emphasizes senior engineers and directors, signaling pressure to mature certification and validation processes while scaling cross-program execution.

HeadquartersBoston, MA

Company Size51–200 employees

Founded2019

Hiring MarketsUnited States

Frequently Asked Questions

What tech stack does Merlin use for autonomous flight software?

Core avionics: MATLAB, Simulink, C/C++, ARINC 429, RS-232/422/485. Cloud/DevOps: AWS, Azure, GCP, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform. Design tools: SolidWorks, CATIA, Onshape, Creo, Figma. Recently adopting Docker and Kubernetes for containerized deployment.

What is Merlin working on?

Avionics systems integration, flight test process development, autonomy systems flight testing, electrical systems design, system-level verification and validation, COTS/MOTS subsystem integration, and onboard/off-board perception capabilities for autonomous aircraft.