Real-Time Embedded Systems Engineer for Spacecraft

Cowboy Space Corp.; San Carlos (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 185,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity in Cowboy Space Corp.

Medical, dental, vision insurance

401(k) retirement plan

Paid time off

10 paid holidays

Paid parental leave

Relocation assistance

Daily lunch in office

Job summary

Cowboy Space Corporation in San Carlos, CA seeks an Embedded Software Engineer to own real-time software for spacecraft subsystems, including power and thermal control. You’ll join a small team handling board bring-up, driver development, and reliable firmware updates for field and orbit operations.

This role emphasizes deep hardware/software integration, robust fault-tolerant design, and collaboration with electrical, avionics, and software teams to define architecture and interfaces.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in embedded software or firmware development.
• Strong programming skills in C/C++ for embedded systems.
• Experience with RTOS-based (FreeRTOS) and/or bare-metal environments.
• Comfort reading schematics and debugging hardware/software interfaces.
• Experience with hardware/software integration and board bring-up.
• Ability to own a subsystem largely independently after ramp-up.

Responsibilities

• Own embedded software for spacecraft subsystems from concept through on-orbit operations.
• Design, develop, and debug real-time embedded software for microcontroller-based boards in FreeRTOS or bare-metal.
• Implement low-level drivers and real-time control loops for power distribution and thermal control.
• Build and maintain software for board bring-up and firmware updates in-field and on orbit.
• Collaborate to define system architecture and interfaces; investigate anomalies and perform root cause analysis.

Skills

Embedded software

C/C++ programming

RTOS experience

Hardware/software boundary

Subsystem ownership

Education

Bachelors in EE/CE/CS

Tools

FreeRTOS

Bare-metal

JTAG

Oscilloscopes

Logic analyzers

SPI/I2C/UART/CAN

Job description

Cowboy Space Corporation in San Carlos, CA seeks an Embedded Software Engineer to own real-time software for spacecraft subsystems, including power and thermal control. You’ll join a small team handling board bring-up, driver development, and reliable firmware updates for field and orbit operations.

This role emphasizes deep hardware/software integration, robust fault-tolerant design, and collaboration with electrical, avionics, and software teams to define architecture and interfaces.