Senior Flight Software Engineer

IonQ, Inc. is the world’s leading quantum platform and merchant supplier. Capella, an IonQ company, spans national security, advanced sensing, and next-generation compute. Capella Space operates one of the world’s most capable commercial synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite constellations. As a Flight Software Engineer, you will write the software that runs our satellite fleet in orbit, working daily alongside FPGA developers, electrical engineers, and other subsystem owners to design, build, and evolve flight code.

Responsibilities

Design, develop, and maintain flight software for a growing satellite constellation; Collaborate with EE, FPGA, and ground software engineers to ensure seamless integration between hardware and software; Lead code reviews and mentor teammates with constructive, high-standard feedback; Write and maintain unit and integration tests to ensure robustness and reliability of the software; Develop software documentation and provide cross-training to other team members; Troubleshoot and resolve software issues quickly, including in live on-orbit operations; Participate in the software development life cycle, from requirement analysis to deployment; Support integration and operations teams with software-related queries

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, or a related field or equivalent practical experience; 5+ years of relevant, hands-on engineering experience; Ability to support a design through all software lifecycles including initial schematic review and architectural tradeoffs, preliminary and detailed design, implementation, integration, and test; Experience working with real-time embedded systems - both hardware and software, including low-level drivers; Hands on experience developing, testing, and debugging hard real-time software (bare-metal or RTOS); Familiarity with embedded Linux, Linux kernel modules, and standard Linux tools; Strong knowledge of programming compiled (C, C++) and scripted (Python, shell script, etc.) languages; Experience writing software for microcontrollers and other embedded systems, e.g., Xilinx Zynq SoCs; Familiarity with software configuration management; Hands-on experience with lab equipment and electronics hardware, e.g., oscilloscopes, logic analyzers; U.S. citizen, lawful U.S. permanent resident, refugee or asylee, or eligible to obtain required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State and/or Commerce

Nice to have

Prior space experience; Curiosity; Resilience; Willingness to tackle hard problems with precision and creativity

Benefits

Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans; Matching 401(k); Unlimited PTO and paid holidays; Parental/adoption leave; Legal insurance; Home technology stipend; Bonus; Equity