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Salary: USD 125,000 - 150,000 / annual
Terran Orbital, a leading satellite manufacturer serving aerospace and defense industries, is seeking a Flight Software Engineer to join its spacecraft development team. You will report to the Flight Software Engineering Manager and be responsible for designing, developing, testing, and maintaining mission-critical software that controls satellites and ensures successful spacecraft operations in orbit.
You will contribute across the full spacecraft software lifecycle—from requirements definition and architecture through on-orbit commissioning and operations. This role offers hands-on work with real spacecraft hardware, simulation environments, and a multidisciplinary engineering team.
Key responsibilities include:
- Design, implement, and maintain flight software modules for guidance, navigation, control, payload operations, power management, communication, autonomy, and fault protection
- Develop software for diverse mission payloads including imaging systems, advanced sensors, and propulsion-based maneuvers such as aero-braking and lunar descent profiles
- Write comprehensive unit, integration, and regression tests using existing frameworks to ensure robust, reliable, and verifiable flight code
- Integrate and validate software across multiple environments: high-fidelity simulators, hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testbeds, engineering development units (EDUs), and flight-like spacecraft hardware
- Collaborate with systems engineering, GNC, avionics, payload, and ground software teams to define software requirements, architecture, and interfaces
- Participate in on-orbit commissioning and support early operations of newly launched satellites, including debugging, telemetry analysis, and software tuning
- Contribute to continuous improvement of development processes, including CI/CD pipelines, coding standards, and documentation
The role is based in Irvine, CA, operating in a professional office environment within a manufacturing company. You will routinely use standard office equipment and computers, with substantial computer usage. The position is generally sedentary but may require occasional lifting of objects up to 25 pounds.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related field
- 2+ years of experience developing C++ applications for embedded, real-time, or safety-critical systems (Level II)
- Strong understanding of embedded software concepts such as memory management, concurrency, and real-time constraints
- Highly motivated, self-directed, and able to operate effectively in a fast-moving team environment
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
- U.S. Citizenship with eligibility to obtain and maintain a DoD security clearance
- Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, protected individual, or eligible to obtain required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State
- Position may require a current United States National Security clearance or eligibility for such a clearance
DIFFERENTIATORS (preferred):
- Hands-on experience using A.R.M. and Texas Instruments embedded processors and associated development environments
- Proficiency with Linux development workflows and GNU toolchains (Make, GCC, GDB, etc.)
- Experience with scripting languages such as Bash and Python for automation and tooling
- Experience within the aerospace industry, particularly in satellite or space-mission software development
