Founding Lead Flight Software Engineer
Pillar Space · Los Angeles, CA · hybrid
USD 185,000 to 275,000 per year
FOUNDING LEAD FLIGHT SOFTWARE ENGINEER
Equity: 0.3% – 1% depending on experience
ABOUT US
We're a stealth team building space hardware at the edge of what's currently possible — high-stakes, flight-grade systems where the engineering bar is unforgiving and the upside is enormous. While we can't share full details yet, our founding and early engineering team includes talent from SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, and Impulse Space, the group includes people who've pulled off feats almost no one else on Earth has.
ROLE OVERVIEW
We are seeking a Lead Flight Software Engineer to own our flight software stack from first principles — the software that commands, controls, and keeps our spacecraft alive.
This is a senior technical leadership role. You will not only define and execute the flight software architecture, but also help build the flight software team, set technical standards, mentor engineers, and establish the systems, processes, and culture required to develop flight-grade software.
This is not a narrow coding role. You will own the full flight software stack: bootloaders, board support packages, and device drivers up through command and telemetry, scheduling, GNC and autonomy integration, fault management, and the test infrastructure that proves it all works. You will partner closely with avionics on flight computer selection, interfaces, and bring-up, and make system-level trades across software, hardware, autonomy, and reliability.
The ideal candidate has direct experience with spacecraft flight software, real-time embedded systems, hardware/software integration, verification, and technical team leadership. We recognize that very few people have all of this. What matters most is that you have exceptional fundamentals, have led real software systems from concept toward flight, have managed or mentored engineers in high-performance technical environments, and can operate independently in ambiguity while making sound engineering tradeoffs. You will have direct ownership over one of the company's core technical challenges.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
- Own the flight software architecture, from early design through development, integration, test, qualification, and flight operations.
- Lead development of real-time embedded flight software: board support packages, bootloaders, device drivers, RTOS configuration, scheduling, and inter-task communication.
- Build command and telemetry handling, onboard data storage and downlink management, time management, and onboard sequencing and autonomy.
- Architect fault detection, isolation, and recovery (FDIR), safe modes, watchdogs, redundancy management, and fault tolerance appropriate for flight-grade autonomous systems.
- Integrate GNC, power, propulsion, and payload algorithms and control loops into flight software with deterministic timing and well-defined interfaces.
- Define software interfaces and command/telemetry protocols across vehicle buses (e.g., SpaceWire, CAN, Ethernet, MIL-STD-1553, RS-422/485, SPI, I2C, UART) and to the ground (e.g., CCSDS).
- Select or build the flight software framework (e.g., NASA cFS, F Prime, or in-house), along with the toolchain, build system, and configuration management around it.
- Build the software test infrastructure: unit and integration testing, software-in-the-loop simulation, hardware-in-the-loop and processor-in-the-loop rigs, flatsat-based verification, and continuous integration.
- Design on-orbit flight software update mechanisms, secure boot, and software protections against memory corruption and single-event effects (EDAC, scrubbing, memory protection).
- Partner with avionics on processor and FPGA/SoC selection, board bring-up, and debugging, driving root-cause resolution across hardware and software on the bench and during integrated test campaigns.
- Provide technical leadership across flight software, embedded, ground software, and software test efforts.
- Help hire, manage, mentor, and develop flight software and embedded engineers as the team grows.
- Establish software engineering processes: coding standards, code and design review, static analysis, requirements traceability, and verification discipline appropriate for flight-grade software.
- Help define software requirements, interfaces, timing and resource budgets (CPU, memory, bandwidth), verification plans, and fault-handling approaches for the vehicle.
- Work closely with avionics, GNC, power, propulsion, mechanical, systems, ground software, and mission operations to close interfaces, deliver command and telemetry databases and operational tooling, and field an integrated flight system.
- Work closely with the founders and early engineering team to shape the technical roadmap, engineering culture, hiring plan, and long-term flight software strategy.
- Represent the flight software function in cross-disciplinary design reviews, customer conversations, investor diligence, vendor discussions, and mission planning as needed.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
- Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
- 8+ years developing, testing, or flight-qualifying flight software or real-time embedded software for spacecraft, launch vehicles, aircraft, robotics, or other high-reliability systems.
- Prior experience leading technical workstreams, managing engineers, mentoring junior and mid-level engineers, or building high-performing engineering teams.
- Demonstrated ability to own complex software systems from early architecture through implementation, test, validation, and operational readiness.
- Strong fundamentals in embedded systems, real-time software, concurrency, and computer architecture.
- Expert proficiency in embedded C and/or C++ (Rust a plus) and deep experience with at least one real-time operating system (e.g., FreeRTOS, VxWorks, RTEMS, Zephyr) or bare-metal embedded development.
- Experience writing low-level software against real hardware: device drivers, BSPs, interrupt handling, DMA, and digital interfaces and buses.
- Comfort reading schematics and datasheets and partnering with hardware engineers through board bring-up and debugging.
- Experience with fault-tolerant software design, FDIR, watchdogs, redundancy management, and safe-mode behavior.
- Experience taking software beyond the bench into integration, hardware-in-the-loop, processor-in-the-loop, or representative testbeds.
- Experience with modern software practices: version control, code review, automated testing, and continuous integration.
- Lab fluency: comfortable with debuggers (JTAG/SWD), oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, EGSE, and test automation.
- Ability to work independently with limited direction, identify the right next problem to solve, and drive technical work from ambiguity to tested flight software.
- Ability to make practical system-level tradeoffs across performance, schedule, cost, reliability, testability, and mission risk.
- Ability to lead through influence in a cross-functional environment spanning avionics, GNC, power, propulsion, mechanical, systems, and mission operations.
HIGHLY VALUABLE EXPERIENCE
We do not expect every candidate to have all of the following. The strongest candidates will likely have depth in some areas and the ability to quickly learn the others.
- Demonstrated flight heritage — flight software you helped develop that has flown and operated on orbit.
- Experience leading flight software, embedded, ground software, or software test teams.
- Experience managing engineers in a startup, aerospace company, defense contractor, launch company, robotics company, or other high-reliability technical environment.
- Experience with flight software frameworks such as NASA cFS, F Prime, or comparable in-house frameworks.
- Experience implementing GNC, attitude control, or autonomy software on embedded targets.
- Experience handlin