Senior Flight Software Architect (Rust)

Cowboy Space Corp.; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 200,000 - 250,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity in Cowboy Space Corp.

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 snacks

Job summary

Cowboy Space Corp. in San Carlos, CA or Seattle, WA is seeking a Senior Flight Software Engineer to own the payload software on our spacecraft. You will unify architecture for attitude and pointing state machines, on-board command handling, and telemetry storage, aiming for a near-term on-orbit demonstration.

You will collaborate with GNC, avionics, electrical and systems engineers, build automated tests including HIL, and mentor teammates to raise software quality.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience developing flight software or safety-critical systems.
• Strong Rust/C/C++ systems programming; experience with real-time/embedded designs.
• Experience leading technically, architecture definition and mentoring.

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.

Skills

Flight software

Rust

Real-time systems

Embedded systems

State machines

Leadership

Education

Bachelor's or advanced degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related field

Tools

HIL testing

Simulation

RTOS

Job description

Cowboy Space Corp. in San Carlos, CA or Seattle, WA is seeking a Senior Flight Software Engineer to own the payload software on our spacecraft. You will unify architecture for attitude and pointing state machines, on-board command handling, and telemetry storage, aiming for a near-term on-orbit demonstration.

You will collaborate with GNC, avionics, electrical and systems engineers, build automated tests including HIL, and mentor teammates to raise software quality.