Staff Flight Software Engineer
Observable Space3 hours ago
Responsibilities
- Design and develop flight software for spacecraft and telescope command, control, and data handling systems.
- Build software interfaces for hardware components, sensors, and onboard subsystems.
- Architect highly reliable, fault-tolerant software for long-duration autonomous operation.
- Implement telemetry, command uplink/downlink, and system coordination communication protocols.
- Collaborate with electrical and hardware engineers on software and physical-system integration.
- Support hardware bring-up, integration, debugging, testing, simulation, hardware-in-the-loop activities, and system validation.
- Develop fault detection, isolation, and recovery mechanisms.
- Participate in design reviews such as PDR and CDR and contribute to internal documentation.
- Provide engineering support during integration, testing, and system validation.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or equivalent.
- At least 5 years of experience in software engineering, embedded systems, or systems-level development.
- Strong programming skills in C, C++, or similar low-level languages.
- Experience developing software for embedded or hardware-integrated systems.
- Understanding of real-time systems, concurrency, performance optimization, communication protocols, and networking fundamentals.
- Strong debugging, problem-solving, communication, and collaboration skills.
- Passion for aerospace, robotics, or complex systems.
- Preferred experience with spacecraft, satellite, or aerospace flight software.
- Preferred familiarity with RTOS, embedded Linux, fault-tolerant design, reliability engineering, hardware-in-the-loop testing, simulation environments, and CCSDS space communication standards.
- Preferred basic scripting or automation experience with Python or MATLAB for testing or data analysis.
Benefits
- Flexible work environment with office or hybrid work and remote work part of the week; Los Angeles employees must work at least 3 days per week in the office.
- Unlimited paid time off and paid holidays.
- Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with 100% of employee premiums paid by the employer.
- Stock option opportunities.
- Access to current hardware and software tools.
About Observable Space
Observable Space is an LA-based space startup building the infrastructure to enable satellites and spacecraft to see, navigate and communicate. The vertically-integrated, full-stack company develops and builds advanced optical systems across laser communications, ground-based sensing, and in-space payloads. Co-founded in 2025 by former SpaceX exec Dan Roelker, Observable Space now employs more than 175 people across its manufacturing, engineering, spacecraft, and design labs.