Real-Time Flight Software Engineer – Spacecraft

Katalyst Space; Broomfield (CO); On-site; USD 105,000 - 250,000; Full time

Job summary

Katalyst Space in Colorado seeks a hands-on software engineer to own core flight software subsystems on a Linux-based flight computer. You’ll develop telemetry, sequencing, fault detection, and radio interfaces using C++ and Python in real-time conditions.

Join a small team delivering reliable, safe spacecraft software with rigorous reviews, on‑orbit verification, and mentoring to ship ready code onsite in Broomfield, CO.

Qualifications

• Deep, hands-on C++ on real-time or resource-constrained systems that had to work, RTOS or embedded Linux
• Fault-tolerant thinking: what happens when this module fails, how the vehicle stays safe and commandable, how it recovers without waiting for the ground
• The habit of finishing: you close what you commit to, you verify before you call it done, and when a date slips we hear it from you first
• The instinct to challenge an assumption, back the challenge with data, and convince people. Engineers here make the call and defend it.

Responsibilities

• Own core flight software subsystems end to end: telemetry and messaging, the command and sequencing path, fault detection and recovery, hardware interfaces (UART, CAN, TCP/IP, RS-422), and the radios that keep us commandable
• Write modern C++ on a Linux flight computer, Python where it moves faster, and keep it memory-safe and thread-safe under schedule pressure, because the schedule belongs to a spacecraft
• Take changes from design through review, flatsat and hardware-in-the-loop verification, deploy, and on-orbit behavior, and close them, verified and handed over, not demoed
• Run point on anomalies: diagnose from telemetry and logs, decide what is safe to command, then fix the class of defect, not the instance
• Make the team stronger: review flight code with rigor, hand systems off with documentation that outlives you, and coach less experienced engineers to shippable instead of rewriting their work
• Defend your design decisions to GNC, avionics, operations, and leadership, with data

Skills

C++

Python

RTOS / Embedded Linux

Real-time systems

Telemetry/Diagnostics

Code review

Education

BS in computer science, computer engineering, aerospace, electrical engineering, or equivalent proficiency

Tools

Git

Linux

Job description

Katalyst Space in Colorado seeks a hands-on software engineer to own core flight software subsystems on a Linux-based flight computer. You’ll develop telemetry, sequencing, fault detection, and radio interfaces using C++ and Python in real-time conditions.

Join a small team delivering reliable, safe spacecraft software with rigorous reviews, on‑orbit verification, and mentoring to ship ready code onsite in Broomfield, CO.