Director of Flight Software

About the role

We are seeking a Flight Software Manager or Director to lead the development of the complete onboard software stack for our interceptor systems.

The Flight Software team owns everything from low-level firmware on STM32 microcontrollers to high-level flight applications running on NVIDIA Jetson flight computers. This includes real-time software, embedded Linux platforms, hardware interfaces, flight management, onboard autonomy, and integration of guidance, navigation, control, and sensing algorithms.

You will lead the architecture, development, integration, and delivery of reliable flight software across these platforms. The team also develops and maintains hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) infrastructure supporting software development, integration, and verification.

This is a hands-on technical leadership role. We are looking for an experienced software engineer who can lead a team, make sound architectural decisions, solve complex hardware/software integration challenges, and deliver flight-ready software in a fast-paced environment.

The position may be filled at the Manager or Director level depending on experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and grow the Flight Software engineering team, including technical direction, hiring, professional development, and performance management.
• Own the architecture, development, integration, and delivery of the complete onboard flight software stack, spanning high-level flight applications, real-time computing, microcontroller firmware, and hardware interfaces.
• Lead development of real-time C++ applications on embedded Linux platforms, including flight management, system state machines, scheduling, multithreading, and interprocess communication.
• Oversee development of STM32 and other microcontroller firmware, including peripheral drivers, communication interfaces, and low-level embedded functionality.
• Lead integration of guidance, navigation, control, state estimation, seeker, and other onboard algorithms into the flight software architecture, working closely with GNC and other subsystem teams.
• Develop and maintain reliable software interfaces with onboard sensors, actuators, avionics, and other hardware using protocols such as CAN, SPI, I2C, UART, and Ethernet.
• Oversee embedded Linux platform configuration, reproducible builds, cross-compilation, software deployment, and configuration management using Nix, NixOS, and associated development tooling.
• Incorporate security best practices into onboard software architecture and development, including secure boot, software integrity, secure communications, and protection of embedded systems.
• Own the development and maintenance of flight software hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) infrastructure, including hardware interface emulation, digital and analog I/O simulation, real-time simulation interfaces, and automated testing capabilities.
• Collaborate with GNC, Simulation, Electrical Engineering, Systems Engineering, and Integration & Test teams to support integrated software and hardware verification.
• Establish engineering standards for software architecture, code quality, reliability, testing, code review, and documentation.
• Own flight software releases, configuration control, and software readiness for ground and flight testing.
• Identify technical risks, prioritize engineering work, and drive execution against aggressive development schedules.
• Remain technically engaged through architecture reviews, code reviews, critical debugging, and hands-on engineering when needed.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 7+ years of professional software engineering experience, including significant experience with real-time, embedded, or flight software systems.
• Demonstrated experience leading engineers or technically directing complex software development efforts.
• Strong proficiency in C and C++.
• Experience developing software for embedded Linux systems and/or microcontrollers.
• Strong understanding of software architecture, concurrency, multithreading, real-time scheduling, and hardware/software interfaces.
• Experience with embedded communications protocols and integration with physical hardware.
• Experience developing, debugging, and deploying software on Linux-based systems.
• Demonstrated ability to deliver complex software systems from architecture through integration and testing.
• Strong technical leadership, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience developing flight software for missiles, aircraft, spacecraft, autonomous vehicles, or other mission-critical systems.
• Experience with NVIDIA Jetson or similar embedded Linux computing platforms.
• Experience with STM32 microcontrollers, ARM-based processors, or other embedded hardware.
• Familiarity with Linux PREEMPT_RT, real-time operating systems, or deterministic real-time software architectures.
• Experience with Nix, NixOS, reproducible builds, or declarative system configuration.
• Experience with cross-compilation, embedded Linux development, and software deployment to physical hardware.
• Experience integrating guidance, navigation, control, sensor fusion, or other autonomous system algorithms.
• Experience designing or maintaining HIL test systems, hardware interface emulation, or real-time simulation infrastructure.
• Familiarity with embedded systems security, including secure boot, cryptographic authentication, secure software updates, and vulnerability management.
• Experience with CI/CD, automated testing, software release management, and configuration control.
• Experience with aerospace or defense software verification and validation practices.
• Experience building or scaling software engineering teams in a startup or rapidly evolving engineering organization.

What Success Looks Like

• The complete onboard flight software stack operates reliably across flight computers, microcontrollers, sensors, and actuators.
• Flight software and firmware are delivered predictably in support of integration and flight-test schedules.
• Software builds and deployments are reproducible, tested, secure, and configuration-controlled.
• HIL infrastructure supports repeatable integration testing, regression testing, and efficient identification of software and hardware issues.
• The Flight Software team demonstrates strong technical ownership, engineering quality, and consistent execution.
• Flight software capabilities continue to mature toward reliable, deployable operational systems.