Flight Software Engineer

Job Summary

Core Responsibilities

• You will contribute to the design, development, and testing of spacecraft flight software systems, including those that implement our spacecraft Command and Data Handling; Power; Communications; and Guidance, Navigation, and Control Systems. This includes:
• Contributing to the design of software solutions critical to the operation of our spacecraft, and developing these as Linux applications that run on satellite flight systems.
• Working in a small, agile team to execute the software development lifecycle (requirements definition, design, implementation, test, and verification) across many individual projects.
• Participating in design and code reviews, and collaborating with the team to uphold best practices for the flight software codebase.
• Supporting Elveo's Operations and Payload teams, who each bring unique demands on the satellite flight systems.
• Creating embedded software to interact with satellite devices and electronics using CAN, I2C, SPI, RS-422, RS-485, and other protocols.
• Implementing inter-application coordination and communications using standard inter-process communication (IPC) mechanisms available in Linux.
• Developing test software to support unit, integration, and system testing of all flight software functions.
• Building the telemetry, instrumentation, and data-capture tooling used to verify and validate flight software on our flatsat.

Basic Qualifications

• Proficiency in at least one systems programming language such as C, C++, or Rust, demonstrated through professional work, significant academic/personal projects, or open-source contributions.
• A willingness to work in the Rust programming language.
• Familiarity with Linux and operating system principles.
• Experience building software that interacts with hardware devices, or a strong systems background and eagerness to work close to hardware.
• An understanding of the phases of the software development life cycle.
• Experience writing automated tests for software you build.
• Familiarity with Git and the fundamentals of CI/CD systems.
• A Bachelor's degree or higher in Software, Computer, Electrical, Aerospace, or a related engineering field, or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Several years of professional software engineering experience.
• Network and socket programming experience, particularly for telemetry or commanding interfaces.
• Experience with inter-process communication (IPC) mechanisms.
• Advanced knowledge of the Rust programming language.
• Familiarity with embedded Linux systems, including the Yocto/OpenEmbedded project.
• Experience developing and testing software for SmallSats / CubeSats.
• Experience with hardware-in-the-loop integration and testing.
• Experience with Protocol Buffers, ZeroMQ, gRPC, and Systemd.
• ITAR Requirements
• To comply with U.S. Government export control regulations (ITAR), applicants must be one of the following: (i) a U.S. citizen or national, (ii) a lawful permanent resident (green card holder), (iii) a refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) an asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158. Individuals who do not meet these criteria must be eligible to obtain the necessary authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. For more information, please refer to the ITAR guidelines.
• Learn about ITAR here.

Job Location

• Chantilly, VA