EVONA

Senior / Principal Flight Software Engineer - Spacecraft Payloads
📍
Albuquerque, NM / Bay Area, CA
🚀
Early-Stage Space Technology Company
I’m working with a rapidly growing space technology company developing advanced spacecraft payload systems for both commercial and government missions.
They’re looking for an experienced
Flight Software Engineer
to take significant ownership of payload flight software - from architecture and development through spacecraft integration, verification, commissioning and ultimately on-orbit operations.
This is a broad, highly hands-on position for someone who wants to work close to the hardware and have genuine influence over how flight software is built as the company scales.
What you'll be doing
<ul>
<li>Design and develop
flight software for advanced spacecraft payloads</li>
<li>Own architecture across command &amp; control, telemetry, data handling, health monitoring, fault protection and autonomous operations</li>
<li>Develop primarily in
C++ and/or Rust within Linux environments</li>
<li>Lead
payload-to-spacecraft software integration
, working directly with spacecraft vendors and external engineering partners</li>
<li>Define software interfaces, ICDs, timing requirements, communications and data flows</li>
<li>Develop
SIL/HIL test environments
, automated test frameworks and flight-software verification infrastructure</li>
<li>Work directly with electronics, sensors, communications systems and payload hardware during integration and testing</li>
<li>Support spacecraft-level integration, environmental testing and mission-readiness activities</li>
<li>Participate in
commissioning and on-orbit operations
, including telemetry analysis, anomaly resolution and flight-software updates</li>
<li>Work closely with electrical, optical, RF, controls, systems, mechanical and mission-operations engineers</li>
<li>Help establish flight-software architecture, development standards and engineering practices as the organization grows</li>
</ul>
What they're looking for
<ul>
<li>5+ years
developing embedded, real-time, distributed or mission-critical software</li>
<li>Strong
C++ and/or Rust</li>
<li>Strong Linux development experience</li>
<li>Experience architecting and testing complex embedded software</li>
<li>Comfortable working across the
hardware/software boundary</li>
<li>Experience troubleshooting systems involving software, electronics, communications, sensors or other hardware</li>
<li>Ability to take significant technical ownership and operate effectively in a small engineering team</li>
<li>Strong communication skills when working with internal teams, spacecraft vendors and external partners</li>
</ul>
Particularly relevant experience
Any combination of the following would stand out:
<ul>
<li>Spacecraft or payload
flight software</li>
<li>cFS, F Prime
or similar flight-software frameworks</li>
<li>Ethernet, CAN, UART,
SpaceWire
, CCSDS or TCP/IP</li>
<li>Command and telemetry systems</li>
<li>Fault detection, isolation and recovery (
FDIR
)</li>
<li>Autonomous spacecraft or robotic systems</li>
<li>Complex sensors, optical systems, RF systems or scientific payloads</li>
<li>SIL / HIL / processor-in-the-loop testing</li>
<li>Spacecraft integration and environmental test campaigns</li>
<li>Ground systems and mission operations</li>
<li>Spacecraft commissioning or on-orbit support</li>
<li>High-reliability / fault-tolerant software</li>
</ul>
Why consider it?
This is an opportunity to join a small space company at a stage where you can have genuine ownership rather than inheriting a mature software stack.
You’ll be involved across the full lifecycle:
architecture → development → hardware integration → spacecraft integration → test → launch readiness → commissioning → on-orbit operations
If you're an experienced embedded or flight software engineer who enjoys working close to the hardware and wants broader ownership within an early-stage space company,
message me directly or apply for a confidential conversation.

Senior / Principal Flight Software Engineer - Spacecraft Payloads

Senior / Principal Flight Software Engineer - Spacecraft Payloads

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