Software Engineer

Engtal; El Segundo (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Engtal is seeking a Flight Software Engineer to join an early-stage space technology team building onboard software that enables data collection, resource management, failure response, and reliable downlink from sensors to storage.

You will design and develop flight software services for sensing payload operations, onboard data handling, and system coordination, using Python and C++/Rust on embedded Linux platforms.

Qualifications

• 2–6+ years of professional flight software or embedded software experience.
• Strong Python skills with C++ or Rust.
• Experience developing software for embedded Linux.
• Hands-on experience with low-level protocols and hardware/software debugging.
• Understanding of fault-tolerant system design.
• Experience designing software for resource-constrained environments.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop flight software services for sensing payload operations and onboard data handling.
• Develop software for embedded Linux environments, including Jetson-class platforms.
• Build low-level hardware interfaces, drivers, and debugging tools.
• Create onboard data pipelines covering data collection, storage, and downlink.
• Address real-world constraints like bounded memory, concurrency, latency, and power.

Skills

Flight software

Embedded software

Python

C++

Rust

Embedded Linux

Fault-tolerant design

Resource-constrained environments

Job description

We're partnering with an early-stage space technology company developing advanced sensing systems for operation in challenging real-world environments.

They're looking for a Flight Software Engineer to help build the onboard software that enables these systems to collect data, manage resources, respond to failures, and move information reliably from sensor to storage to downlink.

What You'll Be Doing

• Design and develop flight software services supporting sensing payload operations, onboard data handling and system coordination.
• Develop software for embedded Linux environments, including Jetson-class and other constrained compute platforms.
• Build low-level hardware interfaces, drivers, protocol integrations and debugging tools.
• Develop onboard data pipelines covering collection, compression, storage and downlink.
• Design software around real-world constraints including bounded memory, concurrency, latency, power and compute limitations.

What We're Looking For

• 2-6+ years of professional flight software, embedded software or comparable systems experience.
• Strong programming skills in Python and either C++ or Rust.
• Experience developing software for embedded Linux.
• Hands-on experience with low-level communication protocols and hardware/software debugging.
• Understanding of fault-tolerant system design.
• Experience designing software for resource-constrained environments.

This would suit an embedded or flight software engineer who wants greater ownership over the complete onboard system and enjoys solving problems where software, hardware and mission requirements all intersect.