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Flight Software Engineer

Cowboy Space Corporation· Software Engineering
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Kent, Washington$200k - $250kFull-timePosted 3mo ago

About the role

Senior Flight Software Engineer to own payload flight software for spacecraft, focusing on attitude and pointing state machines, on-board command handling, telemetry and data storage, with responsibility to unify architecture, set patterns, and drive toward a near-term on-orbit demonstration.

Responsibilities

  • Serve as the technical lead and owner for payload flight software, from architecture through on-orbit operations
  • Design, develop, and test flight software in Rust for attitude and pointing state machines, command handling, and telemetry/data storage
  • Define the software architecture, coding patterns, and conventions adopted across the flight software team
  • Establish and uphold the bar for flight-quality software: determinism, fault tolerance, testability, and safe behavior under failure
  • Design and implement fault detection, isolation, and recovery (FDIR) behaviors at the software level
  • Build and maintain automated test infrastructure, including simulation and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing
  • Collaborate closely with GNC, avionics, electrical, and systems engineers to define interfaces and system behavior
  • Support spacecraft integration, environmental test campaigns, and launch and early-orbit operations
  • Investigate anomalies across hardware/software boundaries, perform root cause analysis, and drive fixes to closure
  • Mentor engineers on the team and review designs and code to raise overall software quality
  • Help drive the team toward a near-term on-orbit demonstration, making pragmatic scope and risk tradeoffs along the way

Qualifications

  • 5+ years of experience (or equivalent practical experience) developing flight software or software for other high-reliability, safety-critical systems
  • Experience with software that has flown on orbit, or equivalent deployment experience demonstrating judgment about what flight-quality software requires
  • Strong systems programming skills in Rust, C, or C++, with willingness to work primarily in Rust
  • Experience with real-time and embedded systems, including resource-constrained and fault-tolerant designs
  • Experience designing and implementing state machines, command/telemetry handling, or similar spacecraft software functions
  • Experience with hardware/software integration and testing on real hardware
  • Demonstrated ability to lead technically: setting architecture, establishing conventions, and mentoring other engineers

Skills

Required:RustState machines
Nice to have:C/C++FDIR

Benefits

  • Equity in Cowboy Space Corp.
  • Medical, dental, and vision insurance for employees and eligible dependents
  • 401(k) retirement savings plan
  • Paid time off
  • 10 paid holidays per calendar year
  • Paid parental leave
  • Relocation assistance if applicable
  • Daily lunch in the office and a fully stocked kitchen with beverages and snacks
Last updated Oct 18, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About Cowboy Space Corporation

Powering Humanity From the High Frontier

Cowboy Space Corp. is building a power grid in outer space for artificial intelligence. It is an integrated system of satellites and rockets to haul high-performance compute and optical data transmission down from Low Earth Orbit. Earth's energy grid can't run at the pace of AI. We can.

Orbital Data CentersAI compute in spacesolar-powered data centersLow Earth Orbitpower grid in space
Company profileWebsite

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