Avionics Embedded Software Engineer II

Inversion; California (MO); On-site; USD 106,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Inversion in Playa Vista, CA is seeking an Embedded Software Engineer II to join the Avionics team. You will work across the full software stack—from hardware interfaces and BSPs to real-time flight applications—developing software for our hypersonic reentry vehicle.

Responsibilities include designing, testing, and maintaining embedded software in C and C++, implementing vehicle-wide communications, and collaborating with electrical, systems, and flight operations teams to ensure mission

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer/Electrical/Aerospace Engineering or related discipline.
• Typically 2+ years of professional embedded software experience in aerospace/defense/high-reliability contexts.
• Strong proficiency in modern C and C++ development.
• Experience with bare-metal, RTOS, or Embedded Linux environments.
• Experience debugging at the hardware boundary including processor bring-up.
• Solid understanding of computer architecture, memory, interrupts, DMA, and embedded OS.
• Experience with embedded interfaces (SPI, I2C, UART, CAN, RS-422/232/485).
• Experience with software verification, unit/integration testing, and root-cause analysis.
• Proficiency with Git-based workflows and modern dev practices.
• Strong Python development for test automation and tooling.
• Excellent cross-functional communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, test, and maintain embedded software for flight computers, avionics subsystems, payload interfaces, and vehicle control systems.
• Develop high‑reliability software in C and C++ for real‑time embedded systems in aerospace environments.
• Own software development across the product lifecycle (requirements, architecture, implementation, verification, flight test support, deployment).
• Develop and maintain BSPs, HALs, bootloaders, and device drivers for custom avionics hardware.
• Perform board bring‑up and hardware enablement on new processor/FPGA platforms.
• Develop interfaces for sensors, actuators, radios, power, storage, and vehicle networks.
• Design vehicle-wide communication architectures using DDS, CoAP, and other networking tech.
• Support telemetry, C2, health monitoring, fault management, and data logging.
• Design tests and run HIL verification campaigns; debug with oscilloscopes, JTAG, etc.
• Collaborate across electrical, systems, manufacturing, integration, and flight ops teams.

Skills

C/C++ development

RTOS/Embedded Linux

Python development

Hardware bring-up

Git workflows

DDS/CoAP networking

Unit testing

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering or related field

Tools

Yocto/OpenEmbedded

Buildroot

Job description

Turning Space into a Transportation Layer for Earth

Who We Are:

Inversion builds advanced reentry systems to deliver next‑generation capabilities from space. Our mission is to make Earth radically more accessible by turning Low‑Earth Orbit into an on‑demand logistics domain. Our spacecraft are designed to deliver payloads anywhere on Earth in under an hour, operating through extreme reentry conditions and landing with high precision.

What You'll Do

As an Embedded Software Engineer II you will report directly to the Director of Engineering, Avionics. You will work across the full software stack—low‑level hardware interfaces, board support packages, real‑time vehicle control, networking, and mission‑critical flight applications—developing the software that powers Inversion’s hypersonic reentry vehicle.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, test, and maintain embedded software for flight computers, avionics subsystems, payload interfaces, and vehicle control systems.
• Develop high‑reliability software in C and C++ for real‑time embedded systems operating in mission‑critical aerospace environments.
• Own software development throughout the entire product lifecycle, including requirements definition, architecture, implementation, verification, flight test support, and operational deployment.
• Develop and maintain Board Support Packages (BSPs), hardware abstraction layers, bootloaders, and device drivers for custom avionics hardware.
• Perform board bring‑up and hardware enablement activities on new processor and FPGA‑based platforms.
• Develop software interfaces for sensors, actuators, radios, power systems, storage devices, and vehicle networks.
• Design and implement vehicle‑wide communication architectures enabling reliable exchange of telemetry, commands, sensor data, and control information across distributed embedded computing platforms using DDS, CoAP, and other modern networking technologies.
• Support distributed vehicle software architectures including telemetry, command and control, health monitoring, fault management, and data logging systems.
• Design and execute unit tests, integration tests, and Hardware‑in‑the‑Loop (HIL) verification campaigns.
• Debug complex software and hardware interactions using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers, JTAG debuggers, and software instrumentation tools.
• Collaborate closely with electrical, systems, manufacturing, integration, and flight operations teams to rapidly identify and resolve vehicle‑level issues.
• Participate in software design reviews, architecture reviews, code reviews, and flight readiness reviews.
• Support vehicle integration, environmental testing, flight test operations, and mission execution activities as required.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related discipline.
• Typically 2+ years of professional experience developing embedded software for aerospace, defense, robotics, automotive, or other high‑reliability systems.
• Strong proficiency in modern C and C++ development.
• Experience developing software for bare‑metal, RTOS, or Embedded Linux environments.
• Experience debugging software at the hardware boundary, including processor bring‑up and peripheral integration.
• Strong understanding of computer architecture, memory systems, interrupts, DMA, and embedded operating systems.
• Experience developing software interfaces for common embedded communication protocols including SPI, I2C, UART, CAN, and RS‑422/‑232/‑485.
• Experience with software verification, unit testing, integration testing, and root‑cause analysis.
• Proficiency with Git‑based development workflows and modern software development practices.
• Strong Python development skills for test automation, hardware control, and engineering tooling.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to work effectively across multidisciplinary engineering teams.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience developing flight software for spacecraft, launch vehicles, hypersonic vehicles, autonomous aircraft, or defense systems.
• Experience with NXP i.MX RT, STM32, TI Sitara, Xilinx Zynq, AMD Versal, or similar embedded processing platforms.
• Experience developing distributed embedded systems using middleware and protocols such as DDS, CoAP, MQTT, gRPC, REST, TCP/IP, UDP, and Ethernet.
• Experience with embedded operating systems (FreeRTOS, Zephyr, Embedded Linux) and embedded Linux build systems (Yocto/OpenEmbedded, Buildroot, PetaLinux), including development of custom Linux distributions, BSPs, and production image pipelines.
• Experience developing device drivers, BSPs, bootloaders, and low‑level hardware interfaces.
• Experience with deterministic networking, Precision Time Protocol (PTP), DDS middleware, or distributed embedded systems.
• Experience with high‑speed interfaces such as PCIe, GigE Vision, USB 3.0, CameraLink, Aurora, or GMSL.
• Experience with FPGA development, HDL design, or hardware acceleration architectures.
• Experience developing automated test frameworks and Hardware‑in‑the‑Loop (HIL) systems.
• Familiarity with cybersecurity concepts, secure boot, encryption, and trusted computing architectures.
• Experience with fault‑tolerant and safety‑critical software architectures.
• Experience supporting vehicle integration campaigns, environmental testing, flight testing, or mission operations.
• Previous experience working in a fast‑paced startup environment with aggressive development schedules.

Location

Our office headquarters is located in Playa Vista, CA. This position requires in‑office presence.

Salary

The California annual base salary for this role is currently $106,000 – $150,000. Pay will be determined on a case‑by‑case basis considering interviews, skills, experience, certifications, and internal equity.

Export Control

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., a protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Inversion provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, veteran status, or disability.

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