Staff Software Engineer Clearance, Flight Software

Muon Space, Inc.; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 228,000 - 252,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity compensation

Medical, dental, vision insurance

401k retirement plan

Paid vacation and holidays

Parental leave

Job summary

Muon Space, Inc. is seeking a Staff Software Engineer for flight software to design, implement, test, and integrate software that runs on orbiting satellites.

The role supports bare-metal/RTOS environments and may be remote or based at our San Jose headquarters, with strong collaboration across hardware and cloud backend teams. The ideal candidate has deep C/C++ skills, embedded systems expertise, and a current TS clearance.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s, Master’s or PhD in computer science, electrical engineering, or related field.
• 7+ years experience as a software engineer in a team environment.
• Strong C/C++ programming, with exposure to other languages.
• Embedded systems fundamentals: resource-efficient design, drivers, IRQs, RTOS.
• Experience with hardware integration and reading datasheets.
• Current TS security clearance.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills.

Responsibilities

• Define and build Muon’s satellite bus and payload software.
• Translate requirements into designs and implementations for on-orbit operations.
• Develop software for ARM Cortex-M based flight systems and peripherals.
• Evaluate technologies and shape software foundations across teams.
• Provide technical leadership and cross-functional coordination on mission-critical projects.
• Develop and teach flight software and hardware-in-the-loop testing strategies.
• Collaborate with hardware to bring up Muon hardware and set architectures.

Skills

C/C++

Embedded systems

RTOS

Hardware integration

Security clearance

Communication

Leadership

Education

B.S./M.S./Ph.D. in CS or EE

Tools

ARM Cortex-M

RTOS frameworks

Linux

Job description

Staff Software Engineer Clearance, Flight Software

Northern VA

About the role

Muon seeks aFlight Software Engineer to join our satellite flight software team. The ideal candidate is a self-motivated versatile software developer with significant previous experience developing robust bare-metal / RTOS embedded devices or appliances. In this role, you will design, develop, integrate, and test the software and firmware that runs on our orbiting satellites. This role may be remote or located at our headquarters in San Jose, California.

Responsibilities

• Integral member of the team defining and building Muon’s satellite bus and payload platform


• Translate concepts and requirements into design and working implementations, supporting through to on-orbit operations


• Design, bring up, and support the embedded software environment that runs in our satellite flight systems and peripherals using ARM Cortex-M CPUs.


• Participate in evaluating and selecting technologies for our software foundation


• Provide technical leadership to key projects, organizing cross-functional teams to deliver mission critical capabilities


• Develop application, platform, and driver functionality in our flight software environment and teach others how to use it


• Integrate compute and peripheral subsystems in both software and hardware


• Develop technical strategy documents for an entire organization or multiple teams, including architectural patterns, shared libraries, and common services.


• Collaborate with hardware team members on the design and bring up of Muon hardware


• Collaborate with software team members to set flight software architecture, select infrastructure and tools, and communicate with cloud backends.


• Participate in developing software and hardware-in-the-loop test strategies

Qualifications

• B.S., M.S., or Ph.D. in computer science, electrical engineering, or related field


• 7+ years experience as a software engineer in a team environment


• Strong C/C++ programming, with some practical familiarity of other languages


• Great embedded systems fundamentals: resource-efficient design, low-level drivers, bit manipulation, responsive software and IRQ handling, RTOS frameworks, I/O and communication buses.


• Integration and control of external hardware devices


• Read and understand hardware data sheets


• Excellent communication and presentation skills


• Experience working on government/defense projects


• Current TS security clearance

Nice-to-have Skills

• Experience working in flight software or some closely related domain


• Knowledge of industry-standard data formats and schemas (ProtoBuf, YAML, JSON, etc)


• Rust and Python experience


• Familiarity with a Linux-based development environment


• Experience with one or more of: embedded linux, FPGA, HW design, RF communication systems, network architecture.


• End-to-end development from product concept to delivery to customer/market.

The salary range for this role is $228,000 - $252,000 , plus a competitive equity grant and comprehensive benefits package. Final compensation will be determined based on skills, qualifications, experience, and geographic location as assessed during the interview process.

About Muon Space

Founded in 2021, Muon Space is an end‑to‑end Space Systems Provider that designs, builds, and operates LEO satellite constellations delivering mission‑critical data. Our revolutionary, integrated technology stack enables customers to optimize every dimension of their missions for faster time-to-orbit and superior constellation remote sensing performance. Our state‑of‑the‑art facility in the heart of Silicon Valley is optimized for manufacturing spacecraft and rapid, flexible payload integration at scale. From climate monitoring to national security, Muon Space is dedicated to delivering Earth Intelligence for a safer and more resilient world.

Taking Care of Our Team

At Muon salary is only part of our total compensation package. In addition to salary, full-time employees receive equity compensation as well as benefits including medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401k retirement plan, short & long term disability and life insurance. We also offer three weeks paid vacation for new employees, along with 12 paid holidays, unlimited sick time and paid parental leave.

We are dedicated to creating a diverse and dynamic company and workforce. We believe in equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, age, national origin, citizenship, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, or gender identity. We value diversity in the workplace, and that starts with our applicants. In addition, if you need a reasonable accommodation as part of your application for employment or interviews with us, please let us know.

Muon is currently registered and able to hire in the following states:
AL, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, IL, IA, ID, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA

This position requires access to export controlled information. To conform to U.S. Government export regulations applicable to that information, applicant must either be (A) a U.S. person, defined as a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (green card holder), (iii) refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, (B) eligible to access the export controlled information without a required export authorization, or (C) eligible and reasonably likely to obtain the required export authorization from the applicable U.S. government agency. The Company may, for legitimate business reasons, decline to pursue any export licensing process.