Flight Software Engineer - Spacecraft & On‑Orbit Ops

terranorbitalcorporation; Irvine (CA); On-site; USD 125,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision coverage

401(k) Match

Flexible Time Off

Education Reimbursement

Parental leave

Swag

Job summary

Terran Orbital in Irvine, CA is seeking an experienced Flight Software Engineer to design, develop, and maintain mission‑critical software that controls our satellites and enables on‑orbit operations. You will work across the full software lifecycle with hands‑on hardware, simulators, and a multidisciplinary team.

Candidates bring 2+ years of C++ embedded experience, real‑time systems, and strong problem solving.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related field.
• 2+ years of experience developing C++ applications for embedded, real‑time, or safety‑critical systems (Level II).
• Strong understanding of embedded software concepts such as memory management, concurrency, and real‑time constraints.
• Highly motivated, self‑directed, and able to operate effectively in a fast‑moving team environment.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• U.S. Citizenship with eligibility to obtain and maintain a DoD security clearance.

Responsibilities

• Design and maintain flight software for guidance, navigation, control, and payload operations.
• Develop software for diverse payloads including imaging systems and sensors.
• Write unit, integration, and regression tests for flight code.
• Integrate software across simulators, HIL, EDUs, and flight hardware.
• Collaborate with systems engineering and avionics to define interfaces.
• Support on‑orbit commissioning and early satellite operations.
• Improve development processes, CI/CD, coding standards, and docs.

Skills

C++ embedded

Real-time systems

Memory management

Concurrency

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/EE/Aerospace

Tools

ARM processors

Texas Instruments

Linux

GNU toolchains (Make/GCC/GDB)

Job description

Terran Orbital in Irvine, CA is seeking an experienced Flight Software Engineer to design, develop, and maintain mission‑critical software that controls our satellites and enables on‑orbit operations. You will work across the full software lifecycle with hands‑on hardware, simulators, and a multidisciplinary team.

Candidates bring 2+ years of C++ embedded experience, real‑time systems, and strong problem solving.