Senior Flight Software Engineer — Rust for Spacecraft (On‑Site)

Cowboy Space Corporation; 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 year

Paid parental leave

Relocation assistance

Job summary

Cowboy Space Corp. is seeking a Senior Flight Software Engineer to own the payload flight software on our spacecraft. You will unify architecture, drive software patterns, and lead a team toward a near-term on-orbit demonstration.

You will design and implement flight software in Rust for attitude control, telemetry, and storage, while collaborating with GNC, avionics, and systems engineers. This on-site role offers a high-ownership startup environment.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience developing flight software or safety-critical systems.
• Experience with software that has flown on orbit or equivalent deployment experience.
• Strong systems programming in Rust/C/C++ with willingness to work primarily in Rust.
• Experience with real-time and embedded systems, 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, mentoring engineers.

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 with GNC, avionics, electrical, and systems engineers to define interfaces
• Support spacecraft integration, environmental test campaigns, and launch and early-orbit operations
• Investigate anomalies, perform root cause analysis, and drive fixes to closure
• Mentor engineers on the team and review designs and code
• Help drive the team toward a near-term on-orbit demonstration with pragmatic scope and risk tradeoffs

Skills

Flight software

Rust

Real-time embedded

State machines

Leadership

Education

Bachelor’s or advanced degree in a relevant field

Job description

Cowboy Space Corp. is seeking a Senior Flight Software Engineer to own the payload flight software on our spacecraft. You will unify architecture, drive software patterns, and lead a team toward a near-term on-orbit demonstration.

You will design and implement flight software in Rust for attitude control, telemetry, and storage, while collaborating with GNC, avionics, and systems engineers. This on-site role offers a high-ownership startup environment.