Staff Embedded Software Engineer
Observable Space7 months ago
Base Salary
$180k - $200k/yr
Responsibilities
- Architect, implement, and document embedded Linux systems composed of daemons, services, and hardware interfaces for highly reliable remote and space environments.
- Own the BSP and driver stack across PCIe, SPI, I2C, UART, MIPI CSI-2, GPIO, and other hardware interfaces.
- Bring up PCIe endpoints, MIPI cameras, and high-bandwidth data links and ensure their long-term robustness.
- Maintain reproducible and hardened Yocto builds through CI/CD testing gates.
- Design autonomous systems that can operate for years with minimal human intervention.
- Collaborate with the test team on lab infrastructure for hardware-in-the-loop testing.
- Participate in product design reviews focused on manufacturability, serviceability, and field reliability.
- Work with electrical and mechanical teams to debug hardware-software boundary issues and unusual edge cases.
Requirements
- At least 5 years of experience in embedded software engineering or systems-level development is required.
- Strong proficiency in C and modern C++ is required.
- Experience with DC power systems, motor drivers, and hardware interfaces including I2C, SPI, CAN, Ethernet, MIPI, and PCIe is required.
- Experience bringing up high-speed interfaces, particularly PCIe and MIPI CSI-2 with D-PHY 1.4+, is required.
- Deep familiarity with oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, spectrum analyzers, multimeters, and power debugging tools is required.
- Ability to read schematics, understand board-level considerations, and debug at the electrical-software boundary is required.
- Experience in fast-paced prototyping environments and strong debugging, product reliability, manufacturing, and serviceability judgment are required.
- Experience with Zephyr RTOS, embedded networking stacks, sensor fusion, Qualcomm SoCs, three-phase motor control, vision processing, image pipelines, camera algorithms, or open-source embedded/Linux kernel projects is preferred.
- Interest in astronomy, physics, and scientific exploration is preferred.
Benefits
- Competitive salary package and stock options are offered.
- Flexible work arrangement with office or hybrid work; LA employees must work at least 3 days per week in the office.
- Unlimited PTO and paid holidays are provided.
- Employer-paid medical, dental, and vision coverage is provided at 100% of the employee premium.
- Employees receive access to current hardware and software tools.
About Observable Space
Observable Space builds vertically integrated optical systems and software that let satellites and spacecraft see, navigate, and communicate. Its products span ground-based telescopes and stations, in-space sensor payloads, and free-space laser communications, paired with embedded compute, cloud orchestration, and developer APIs. The privately held company is headquartered in Los Angeles and manufactures in-house, selling hardware and supporting software to satellite operators, space agencies, defense users, and research institutions.