Principal Software Engineer - TS/SCI (Aerospace)

Location: Littleton, Colorado, United States; site-based role

Base pay range: $150,000–$200,000 USD annually

Company

An end-to-end space company building rockets, spacecraft, satellite components, and critical subsystems for commercial, government, and defense missions.

What you will do

• Define and evolve end-to-end software architecture for spacecraft flight and ground systems.
• Develop embedded flight software for RTOS platforms such as VxWorks and embedded Linux, including hardware drivers for spacecraft sensors and actuators.
• Architect and deploy web-based ground software platforms for spacecraft operations and integrate flight and ground systems.
• Develop unit tests in continuous integration environments and collaborate on hardware-in-the-loop validation.
• Provide technical direction and mentorship while partnering with systems engineers, stakeholders, and leadership.
• Support mission-critical on-orbit operations and software performance in harsh environments.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science, or a related technical discipline.
• 12+ years of professional software development experience, including embedded and ground software.
• Experience architecting scalable and reliable software for aerospace or defense applications.
• Proficiency in C, C++, and Python for embedded development and testing; experience with DIO, AIO, hardware integration, ICDs, schematics, and debugging.
• Experience with RF ground-to-space communication and deriving flight software architecture from electrical designs.
• U.S. citizenship and an active TS/SCI clearance are required.

Nice to have

• Advanced degree in aerospace engineering, computer science, or a related field.
• Experience with CAN/CAN-FD, SpaceWire, UDP/TCP, CCSDS standards, microservices, distributed systems, FastAPI, Kubernetes, and CI/CD.
• Full-stack experience with Golang or Rust, TypeScript, Angular, InfluxDB, or PostgreSQL.
• Experience leading teams, planning staffing, developing autonomous-vehicle software, or designing software for harsh environments.
• Understanding of modern authentication and authorization frameworks such as OAuth.

Culture & Benefits

• Fast-paced environment focused on space exploration, national security, and meaningful missions.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance, 401(k) retirement plan options, and paid vacation, holidays, and sick leave.
• Paid parental leave, employee stock purchase opportunities, potential company stock or cash incentives, and additional discounts.
• Work may include prolonged sitting, standing, walking, computer work, and occasional exposure to moderate noise, dust, and fumes in production areas.