Embedded Systems Engineer

About the role

Define and maintain the architecture for spacecraft embedded computing, control, and mission-management systems.

Responsibilities

• Select processors, microcontrollers, FPGAs, memory, communication interfaces, and supporting electronics based on performance, timing, reliability, radiation, power, thermal, and mission requirements.
• Design, develop, review, and bring up embedded processing and control hardware, including processor boards, interface electronics, communication hardware, and distributed control nodes.
• Develop embedded software and firmware for spacecraft payloads, control systems, sensors, actuators, and mission-critical electronics.
• Implement mission management, command-and-control, telemetry, state management, and fault-management functionality.
• Develop deterministic and timing-critical software for real-time spacecraft operations.
• Develop and integrate software and firmware that interfaces directly with gimbals, fast steering mirrors, inertial measurement units, cameras, photodetectors, motor controllers, power electronics, and related hardware to achieve data sheet performance of these components (e.g., low noise, low latency).
• Support implementation and execution of precision pointing, tracking, and control algorithms.
• Define communication architectures and data routing between processors, sensors, payloads, actuators, and spacecraft subsystems.
• Develop and implement interfaces using spacecraft and embedded communication protocols and buses.
• Define subsystem interfaces, data flows, timing budgets, synchronization requirements, startup behavior, redundancy approaches, and fault responses.
• Develop interfaces with high-power electronics, laser systems, optical payloads, and spacecraft power subsystems.
• Perform hands-on board bring-up, debugging, firmware development, hardware troubleshooting, and laboratory testing.
• Support schematic design, PCB design reviews, component selection, processor-board development, and embedded hardware verification.
• Develop hardware-in-the-loop and software-in-the-loop test environments for subsystem and system-level verification.
• Support spacecraft integration, verification, environmental testing, and mission-readiness activities.
• Perform root-cause analysis of hardware, firmware, timing, communications, and system-integration issues and drive corrective actions to closure.
• Document embedded system architecture, hardware interfaces, software interfaces, communication protocols, timing requirements, design decisions, and verification requirements.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary engineering teams throughout the full development lifecycle.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline.
• 7+ years of experience developing embedded systems for aerospace, defense, robotics, autonomous systems, industrial systems, or other complex hardware.
• Strong experience developing systems that combine embedded hardware, firmware, and real-time software.
• Experience selecting processors, microcontrollers, FPGAs, communication interfaces, memory, and supporting electronics for embedded applications.
• Experience designing, developing, bringing up, or debugging custom embedded electronics and processor-based hardware.
• Strong proficiency in embedded programming languages such as C or C++.
• Experience developing software or firmware that interfaces directly with sensors, actuators, motors, cameras, data converters, or other electronic hardware.
• Knowledge of processor architectures, communication buses, peripheral interfaces, and distributed embedded systems.
• Knowledge of deterministic timing, interrupts, synchronization, concurrency, scheduling, and real-time operating systems.
• Experience debugging embedded systems using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, debuggers, JTAG interfaces, protocol analyzers, and other laboratory instrumentation.
• Strong understanding of hardware/software interfaces and the ability to troubleshoot problems across both domains.
• Experience supporting system integration, hardware-in-the-loop testing, verification, and configuration management.
• Strong systems-thinking, root-cause analysis, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills.