Internship/Master thesis (f/m/x): Automatization of flight software quality checks using AI

German Aerospace Center (DLR); Bremen; On-site; EUR 40,000 - 52,000; Full time

Job summary

German Aerospace Center (DLR) – Institute of Space Systems in Bremen seeks a Master’s student with a strong background in computer science to help design quality checks for flight software in GNC. You will work on prompts, verification datasets, and AI-integrated verification within the GNC department.

Required skills include Python, unittest, Ollama, Llamma.cpp, and knowledge of export control laws. This role focuses on developing robust software pipelines for space missions in Bremen.

Qualifications

• Pursuing a Master’s degree with a solid foundation in software engineering.
• Experience with Python and unittest for software testing.
• Familiarity with modern AI toolchains and prompt engineering.
• Knowledge of export control laws for handling sensitive information.

Responsibilities

• Understand quality checks in FSW development process.
• Create prompts to perform required quality checks.
• Build verification datasets for different quality checks.
• Integrate checks into the AI-powered framework and verify reliability.
• Integrate checks into FSW development processes.

Skills

Python

unittest

Prompt engineering

Ollama

Llamma.cpp

Education

Master’s degree in Computer Science or Computer Engineering

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or Computer Engineering

Tools

Ollama

Llamma.cpp

Job description

The Institute of Space Systems in Bremen is dedicated to designing and analyzing future spacecraft and space missions, including launchers, orbital and exploration systems, and satellites. Our evaluations focus on the technical feasibility, performance and costs of these systems, utilizing a range of cutting-edge, multi-disciplinary engineering methods.

What To Expect

The development of flight-worthy software for GNC systems requires not only good testing strategies but a systematic software engineering process which involves careful requirements flow down, documentation maintenance, reviews, traceability maintenance, and checks in all these steps. In the context of the Flight Software (FSW) development in the GNC department of DLR, many of these checks and actions are currently performed by the developers, given that most of these checks do not have clear deterministic solutions, but require knowledge of the context or at least text interpretation. This adds complexity and time to the process since much time has to be devoted for product assurance instead of creating code. The human in the loop also makes the process susceptible to errors, since there is a big complexity to be managed.

Your tasks

• Understanding the quality checks performed in the FSW Development process
• Creation of prompts that reliably perform the quality checks required by the department
• Creation of verification datasets for the different quality checks
• Integration of these into the AI-powered framework and reliability verification
• Integration of the checks to the FSW development

Your profile

• Currently studying for a Master’s degree and holding a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or Computer Engineering
• Experience with Python and unittest
• Experience with Ollama and Llamma.cpp, or equivalent
• Prompt engineering
• Conformance with the personal requirements for handling of export controlled goods and information according to German, European and American export control law

We look forward to getting to know you!

If you have any questions about this position (Vacancy-ID 6546) please contact:

Hans Krüger

Tel.: [phone]