Founding Flight Software Engineer
Location: Torrance, CA (on-site only — no remote/hybrid)
Compensation: $160,000–$250,000 + equity + benefits
Industry: Aerospace / National Security Space
About the Opportunity
Our client is an early-stage aerospace company designing resilient, high-performance spacecraft to safeguard critical orbital assets and ensure freedom of action in space. The company integrates advanced autonomy, sensing, and control into systems built for reliability, speed, and scale. Backed by seed funding and led by a founder with prior experience at a major space launch company and a successful aerospace startup, the company is preparing to fly its first spacecraft this year.
The Role
We're seeking a Founding Flight Software Engineer to join the early engineering team and own the flight software stack end-to-end — spanning ground-side mission operations tools and vehicle-side embedded software. This person will work closely with avionics, GNC, and systems engineers to help bring the vehicle from concept to flight.
Key Responsibilities
- Build mission operations software — ground tools that plan, execute, and monitor missions in real time
- Develop and integrate flight software for the vehicle, from architecture through test and flight readiness
- Develop ground software services for telemetry, commanding, and visualization
- Write embedded software for flight computers, sensors, and actuators
- Collaborate with avionics, propulsion, and GNC teams to define software interfaces and data models
- Contribute to flight software CI/CD pipelines, testing frameworks, and simulation environments
- Support software-in-the-loop testing, hardware-in-the-loop testing, environmental testing, and flight campaigns
Qualifications
- B.S. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related technical/physics discipline
- Prior experience with systems and mission operations software, ground software, or telemetry/command systems
- Experience with space systems — rovers, satellites, launch vehicles, or similar
- Familiarity with embedded software for real-time or safety-critical systems (aerospace, robotics, automotive, or similar)
- Exposure to DevOps for embedded systems and automated testing pipelines
- Familiarity with hardware-in-the-loop testing, fault tolerance, and safety-critical standards
- Comfortable working independently in small, fast-moving teams
Requirements
- On-site in Torrance, CA (no remote or hybrid arrangements)
- U.S. Citizenship required, ability to obtain or hold active TS/SCI clearance
You should be proficient in:
- embedded software development
- space systems
- developing flight software