SlipstreamJobs tracks this role from the company's public career site. Apply directly on the employer's site.
Salary: USD 169,000 - 216,000 / annual
Varda Space Industries is accelerating commercial space infrastructure development, focusing on in-orbit pharmaceutical processing and reliable reentry capsules. The company designs, builds, and operates W-Series vehicles entirely in-house, including pharmaceutical processing payloads, capsules, C-PICA heat shields, and satellite buses.
As a Senior Firmware Engineer on the Flight Software team, you will be responsible for determining how Varda's spacecraft behaves and operates in orbit, developing reliable software to ensure mission success. You will own all aspects of software development from design through testing and flight operational support.
Key responsibilities include:
- Developing reliable firmware to control spacecraft, satellite bus, and reentry capsule operations throughout the entire mission lifecycle
- Owning all aspects of software development, including design, testing, and integration
- Scoping projects, capturing requirements, and conducting initial design trades for open-ended problems
- Writing quality structured bare metal, RTOS, or Linux-based software for embedded processors in C++
- Building highly reliable and available software systems
- Ensuring system quality and performance through software test, verification, and validation (V&V) techniques
Required qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, math, physics, engineering, or equivalent technical experience in safety-critical software
- 5+ years of experience developing spacecraft or similar safety-critical software
- Experience developing and testing real-time embedded hardware/software systems
- Strong proficiency in C++ with deep understanding of language concepts
Preferred qualifications include experience with safety-critical aerospace software, additional programming languages (Python, Rust), and strong understanding of computer architecture, operating systems, data structures, and networking.
Varda is headquartered in El Segundo, California, with additional offices in Washington, DC and Huntsville, AL. The company was founded in 2021 by Will Bruey and Delian Asparouhov and is backed by leading investors including Khosla Ventures, Lux Capital, Founders Fund, and General Catalyst.
