Flight Software Engineer

Cowboy Space Corp.; United States; On-site; USD 200,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Medical, dental, vision insurance

401(k) retirement plan

Paid time off

10 paid holidays per year

Paid parental leave

Relocation assistance

Office lunch & snacks

Job summary

Cowboy Space Corp. in San Carlos, CA or Kent, WA is seeking a Senior Flight Software Engineer to own the payload flight software, spanning attitude and pointing state machines, on-board command handling, and telemetry/storage.

Lead the architecture, establish conventions, and drive the team toward a near-term on-orbit demonstration, collaborating with GNC, avionics, and systems engineers across the spacecraft program.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in flight software or high-reliability systems.
• Experience with software flown on orbit or equivalent deployment.
• Strong Rust, C, or C++ systems programming; Rust preferred.
• Real-time and embedded systems with resource constraints.
• Designing and implementing state machines and command/telemetry handling.
• Hardware/software integration and testing on real hardware.
• Technical leadership: architecture, conventions, mentoring.

Responsibilities

• Own payload flight software architecture from design to on-orbit operations.
• Develop and test flight software in Rust for attitude/pointing state machines, command handling, telemetry and storage.
• Define software architecture, patterns and conventions for the team.
• Uphold flight-quality software: determinism, fault tolerance, testability, safe failure handling.
• Design and implement FDIR behaviors at the software level.
• Build automated test infrastructure: simulation and HIL testing.
• Collaborate with GNC, avionics, electrical, and systems engineers to define interfaces.
• Support spacecraft integration, environmental tests, and launch operations.
• Investigate anomalies, perform root cause analysis, drive fixes to closure.
• Mentor engineers and review designs to raise software quality.
• Help drive towards near-term on-orbit demonstration.

Skills

Flight software experience

Rust/C/C++ systems programming

Real-time embedded systems

Leadership/mentoring

State machines

Education

Bachelor's or advanced degree in CS/CE/Aerospace

Tools

HIL testing

Simulation

Job description

About Cowboy Space Corp:

Mission
Cowboy Space Corporation is solving the global energy crisis by building the infrastructure for abundant, resilient space-based solar energy. We are tackling one of humanity’s most complex engineering challenges with a world-class team dedicated to delivering a revolutionary power platform. Cowboy Space Corporation is transforming how civilization powers, computes and connects - from orbit to Earth.

Background
Cowboy Space Corporation is building the infrastructure to power and connect the orbital economy. Our modular, scalable satellites collect sunlight in Low Earth Orbit to enable multiple integrated applications: transmitting energy via infrared lasers (space-to-earth and space-to-space), powering on-orbit high-performance computing clusters (GPU/TPU), and providing secure, high bandwidth optical data transport.

Current energy and data systems rely on complex logistics and outdated infrastructure. Cowboy Space Corporation overcomes these challenges by enabling direct, on-demand, secure, and scalable energy distribution and data processing from space. This will revolutionize how we operate in orbit and on Earth, supporting the rapidly expanding space industrial base, ISAM (In-Space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing) operations, remote regions, and military bases.

Baiju Bhatt founded Cowboy Space Corporation in 2024. Inspired by his father’s work with NASA Langley Research Center, Baiju earned his B.S. in Physics and M.S. in Mathematics at Stanford before co-founding Robinhood, now a public company that has helped over 20 million Americans access the financial system. Cowboy Space Corporation has raised ~$365 million from Index Ventures, Interlagos, Construct Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, NEA, and others.

This is an ambitious mission that demands extraordinary talent. Cowboy Space Corporation ’s team has worked at places like SpaceX, Blue Origin, Stoke Space, Astranis and NASA, and is based in San Carlos, CA. If you're ready to solve complex technical challenges and help build the most important energy company in the world, we want to hear from you.

Location: San Carlos, CA or Kent, WA (on-site)

The Role

We're looking for a Senior Flight Software Engineer to own the software that flies on our spacecraft. You'll be responsible for the payload flight software—written in Rust—spanning attitude and pointing state machines, on-board command handling, and telemetry and data storage. Today this work is distributed across several engineers; we need a senior technical owner to unify the architecture, set the patterns and conventions the team builds on, and drive the software toward a near-term on-orbit demonstration.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical lead and owner for payload flight software, from architecture through on-orbit operations
• Design, develop, and test flight software in Rust for attitude and pointing state machines, command handling, and telemetry/data storage
• Define the software architecture, coding patterns, and conventions adopted across the flight software team
• Establish and uphold the bar for flight-quality software: determinism, fault tolerance, testability, and safe behavior under failure
• Design and implement fault detection, isolation, and recovery (FDIR) behaviors at the software level
• Build and maintain automated test infrastructure, including simulation and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing
• Collaborate closely with GNC, avionics, electrical, and systems engineers to define interfaces and system behavior
• Support spacecraft integration, environmental test campaigns, and launch and early-orbit operations
• Investigate anomalies across hardware/software boundaries, perform root cause analysis, and drive fixes to closure
• Mentor engineers on the team and review designs and code to raise overall software quality
• Help drive the team toward a near-term on-orbit demonstration, making pragmatic scope and risk tradeoffs along the way

Basic Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience (or equivalent practical experience) developing flight software or software for other high-reliability, safety-critical systems
• Experience with software that has flown on orbit, or equivalent deployment experience demonstrating judgment about what flight-quality software requires
• Strong systems programming skills in Rust, C, or C++, with willingness to work primarily in Rust
• Experience with real-time and embedded systems, including resource-constrained and fault-tolerant designs
• Experience designing and implementing state machines, command/telemetry handling, or similar spacecraft software functions
• Experience with hardware/software integration and testing on real hardware
• Demonstrated ability to lead technically: setting architecture, establishing conventions, and mentoring other engineers

Preferred Qualifications

• Bachelor's or advanced degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field
• Prior experience as a technical lead or architect for a spacecraft flight software effort
• Production Rust experience, particularly in embedded or systems contexts
• Experience with attitude determination and control or pointing systems from the software side
• Experience with FDIR design, redundancy management, and autonomous fault response
• Experience building simulation, software-in-the-loop, and hardware-in-the-loop test environments
• Experience supporting launch, commissioning, and on-orbit operations, including anomaly investigation
• Familiarity with radiation effects and other space-environment considerations for software design
• Experience thriving in fast-paced, high-ownership startup environments with rapid iteration cycles

Compensation and Benefits:

The salary range for this position is $200,000 - $250,000 annually. The actual base salary offered will depend on factors such as job-related skills, experience, qualifications, and internal equity.

• Equity in Cowboy Space Corp.
• Employees and their eligible dependents may enroll in medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) retirement savings plan
• Paid time off
• 10 paid holidays per calendar year
• Paid parental leave
• Relocation assistance if applicable
• Daily lunch in the office and a fully stocked kitchen with beverages and snacks

ITAR Requirements

• Export Control Requirement: To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), applicants must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., 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. Learn more about ITAR here.

Disclaimer

This job description is a summary of the primary duties and responsibilities of the job and position. It is not intended to be a comprehensive or all-inclusive listing of duties and responsibilities. Contents are subject to change at Cowboy Space Corp.’s discretion.

Cowboy Space Corp. is an equal employment opportunity employer. We consider individuals for employment or promotion according to their skills, abilities and experience. Cowboy Space Corp. is committed to complying with all applicable laws prohibiting discrimination based on race, color, religious creed, age, national origin, ancestry, physical, mental or developmental disability, sex (which includes pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding and medical conditions relating to pregnancy, childbirth or breastfeeding), veteran status, military status, marital or registered domestic partnership status, medical condition (including cancer or genetic characteristics), genetic information, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, as well as any other category protected by federal, state or local laws.