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Salary: USD 131,000 - 184,000 / annual
Varda Space Industries is building commercial space infrastructure, including in-orbit pharmaceutical processing systems, reentry capsules, and satellite buses. The company designs and operates all components in-house, from heat shields to processing payloads.
As a Spacecraft Embedded Software Engineer on the Flight Software team, you will develop reliable firmware that controls how Varda's spacecraft, satellite bus, and reentry capsule operate throughout their missions. You'll own all aspects of software development—from design and testing through integration and flight operations support.
Key responsibilities include:
- Developing reliable firmware for spacecraft control systems using bare metal, RTOS, or Linux-based approaches
- Writing quality structured code in C++ for embedded processors
- Owning the full development lifecycle: requirements capture, design, implementation, testing, and integration
- Scoping projects and conducting design trades for open-ended problems
- Building highly reliable and available software systems
- Ensuring system quality through verification, validation, and testing techniques
You'll work with a team of veterans from SpaceX, Blue Origin, major pharmaceutical companies, and Silicon Valley. Varda was founded in 2021 and is backed by top-tier investors including Khosla Ventures, Lux Capital, and Founders Fund. The company is headquartered in El Segundo with additional offices in Washington, DC and Huntsville, AL.
Required qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, math, physics, engineering, or equivalent technical experience in safety-critical software
- 3+ years developing spacecraft or similar safety-critical software
- Experience developing and testing real-time embedded hardware/software systems
- Strong C++ development skills and deep language understanding
Preferred qualifications include aerospace safety-critical software experience, proficiency in Python or Rust, and strong fundamentals in computer architecture, operating systems, data structures, and networking.
