Software Engineer - Build & Release

About the role

Xona is the navigational intelligence company bringing real-time, centimeter-level certainty to any device, anywhere on Earth.

With Pulsar - the world’s most advanced PNT satellite infrastructure in Low Earth Orbit - Xona will offer a future-proof, backwards-compatible global positioning system optimized for absolute precision, superior power, and robust protection.

We are looking for a Build & Release Software Engineer to own our build systems, CI/CD infrastructure, and release tooling for the software powering Xona's satellite systems. You'll improve developer productivity while ensuring reliable, repeatable builds and releases across both simulation and hardware-integrated environments.

What You'll Do

• Design, maintain, and optimize cross-platform build systems using tools such as CMake and Bazel.
• Manage and upgrade compiler toolchains (GCC, Clang, etc.) while handling complex dependency graphs, third-party libraries, and internal package management.
• Own and improve CI/CD workflows supporting large-scale C++ applications.
• Diagnose and optimize compilation and linking bottlenecks through caching, parallelization, and distributed build strategies.
• Ensure seamless cross-compilation across multiple architectures, including x86 and ARM.
• Support testing in containerized and emulated environments using technologies such as Docker and QEMU.
• Write robust tooling and automation scripts in Python and Bash for environment provisioning, static analysis, and artifact generation.
• Partner closely with C++ software engineers to improve modular architecture, dependency management, and overall build reliability.
• Ensure reproducible build and release environments across local development, CI, and hardware-integrated systems.

Required Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience inw Build & Release Engineering, Developer Infrastructure, or DevOps supporting complex C++ codebases.
• Advanced proficiency with CMake and GNU Make/Ninja.
• Strong Linux command-line and Bash scripting skills.
• Strong understanding of the C++ build, compilation, and linking lifecycle.
• Familiarity with modern C++ standards (C++17/20/23).
• Experience managing complex dependency graphs and modular build targets.
• Hands-on experience with containerization platforms such as Docker or Podman for build environment provisioning, dependency isolation, and reproducible CI/CD workflows.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience developing or supporting Embedded Linux systems using Yocto, Buildroot, or similar tools.
• Experience with hardware emulation tools such as QEMU.
• Familiarity with GitLab CI workflows.
• Experience working on embedded, aerospace, robotics, or other hardware-integrated software systems.
• Experience optimizing large-scale build systems using Bazel, remote execution, or similar distribu=-ed build technologies.
• Knowledge of linker internals, symbol visibility, and binary analysis tools such as ldd, nm, objdump, and readelf.
• Familiarity with static and dynamic analysis tools such as Clang-Tidy, AddressSanitizer (ASan), and SonarQube.

Additional information

For U.S. Roles: To comply with U.S. Government space technology export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the United States (i.e. Green Card holder), or other protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3).

For U.K. Roles: To comply with U.K. regulations, this role requires Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks, and successful candidates must be eligible to obtain UK Security Clearance (SC).

For Canada Roles: Successful candidates must obtain and hold a security clearance at the reliability status level, and pass security assessment for the Canadian Controlled Goods Program (CGP) and ITAR.