Lead Flight Software Engineer — Spacecraft Autonomy & RTOS

NewOrbit Space; Reading; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Private health insurance

Relocation support

Visa sponsorship

Hybrid work model

Job summary

NewOrbit Space in Reading, UK is seeking a senior flight software engineer to lead the team that owns the spacecraft's real-time control software. You will design, implement, and test flight software on RTOS or Embedded Linux, and drive end-to-end validation from simulation to on-orbit operations.

You will own the onboard stack, integrate subsystems via I2C/SPI/UART/CAN/SpaceWire, build autonomous FDIR, and push code through CI/CD for reliable OTA updates.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in flight software development for spacecraft or similar embedded systems.
• Experience building production embedded or real-time systems in C/C++ and/or Rust.
• Strong knowledge of real-time scheduling, interrupts, and resource constraints.
• Hands-on hardware integration via I2C/SPI/UART/CAN/SpaceWire.
• Ability to own systems end-to-end from requirements to operations.
• Experience with CI/CD, testing, and debugging in space-grade environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead the flight software engineering team – recruit, coach, and direct the work.
• Own the on-board flight-software stack – design, implement and test real-time C/C++ on RTOS or Embedded Linux.
• Integrate subsystems end-to-end – define ICDs and build drivers/middleware.
• Build spacecraft behaviors & autonomy – mode management, sequencing, and autonomous FDIR.
• Deliver reliable real-time performance – concurrency, timing, CPU/memory budgets, observability.
• Build verification infrastructure – SIL/HIL test harnesses, simulations, telemetry analysis.
• Ship code from review to orbit – CI/CD, support integration and launch ops, OTA updates.
• Work across disciplines – collaborate with avionics, AOCS, comms and mission teams.

Skills

Flight software development

Real-time C/C++

RTOS / Embedded Linux

System integration

CI/CD and testing

Observability and debugging

Tools

CI/CD tooling

HIL/SIL test harnesses

Embedded Linux tools

Job description

NewOrbit Space in Reading, UK is seeking a senior flight software engineer to lead the team that owns the spacecraft's real-time control software. You will design, implement, and test flight software on RTOS or Embedded Linux, and drive end-to-end validation from simulation to on-orbit operations.

You will own the onboard stack, integrate subsystems via I2C/SPI/UART/CAN/SpaceWire, build autonomous FDIR, and push code through CI/CD for reliable OTA updates.