Flight Software Manager

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of flight software engineers
• Establish team priorities, objectives, and technical roadmaps aligned with company and program goals
• Drive execution of software development activities across multiple programs and spacecraft platforms
• Foster a culture of ownership, accountability, continuous improvement, and technical excellence
• Coordinate resources and priorities across engineering, mission operations, systems engineering, and program management teams
• Provide technical direction for spacecraft flight software architecture and design
• Lead software development efforts for embedded Linux and real-time spacecraft systems
• Oversee software requirements, interface definitions, architecture reviews, and design decisions
• Guide integration of software with spacecraft hardware, payloads, radios, and mission systems
• Support software verification, validation, and qualification activities
• Drive improvements to software quality, reliability, cybersecurity, automation, and maintainability
• Participate in root-cause investigations, anomaly resolution, and on-orbit support activities
• Ensure successful delivery of flight software releases across development, test, and flight environments
• Drive continuous improvement of CI/CD pipelines, testing frameworks, release processes, and software metrics
• Support technical reviews including PDRs, CDRs, TRRs, PSRs, mission readiness activities
• Collaborate with platform, applications, hardware, systems engineering, integration & test, and mission operations teams to deliver mission success

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related field
• 6+ years of experience in embedded software development
• 2+ years of technical leadership, project leadership, or people management experience
• Strong proficiency in C/C++
• Experience with embedded Linux systems (drivers, networking, system-level debugging)
• Experience with deterministic build systems such as Yocto or VxWorks
• Familiarity with networking protocols (TCP/IP, UDP, routing concepts)
• Experience leading software projects through the full development lifecycle
• Strong communication, collaboration, and leadership skills
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment
• Must be clearance eligible and able to maintain an active Secret Clearance or higher

Preferred Requirements

• Master’s Degree in computer science or engineering related field
• 10+ years of experience developing software for aerospace, defense, or safety-critical systems
• Experience managing engineering teams and technical roadmaps
• Experience with spacecraft flight software and on-orbit operations
• Experience with real-time operating systems (RTOS)
• Experience with Yocto, Buildroot, VxWorks, or similar embedded build environments
• Familiarity with CCSDS, DTN, and spacecraft communication protocols
• Experience supporting hardware-in-the-loop (HITL), flatsat, and system-level integration environments
• Knowledge of software assurance, cybersecurity, secure boot, software signing, and key management
• Experience supporting launch campaigns and on-orbit anomaly investigations