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The Exploration Company · 22 hours ago

Spacecraft Flight Computing Engineer & Senior Engineer

California, United States

Full-time

Onsite

Senior Level

The Exploration Company is developing a modular and reusable space orbital vehicle called Nyx. They are seeking a highly skilled Spacecraft Flight Computing Engineer to focus on hands-on hardware and software development, ensuring the systems are resilient to radiation effects in space environments.

AerospaceAir TransportationManufacturingSpace Travel

No H1B

U.S. Citizen Only

Responsibilities

Design, implement, and maintain real-time embedded computing systems for spacecraft avionics

Apply fault-tolerant computing techniques to ensure reliable operation in the presence of radiation-induced upsets and anomalies

Develop and optimize our RTOS and Linux-based real-time operating environments, including kernel configuration, bootloader, device drivers, and system-level performance tuning

Perform hardware design tasks, including schematic capture, PCB layout, and component selection using Altium Designer, with emphasis on radiation-tolerant design practices

Develop, synthesize, and validate FPGA designs (VHDL/Verilog), incorporating mitigation strategies such as TMR, ECC, and scrubbing

Design, configure, and troubleshoot IP networking protocols, with focus on TSN for deterministic networking and PTP for precise time synchronization across spacecraft systems

Conduct system integration, hardware/software debugging, and fault injection testing to verify robustness under radiation and fault conditions

Collaborate closely with flight software, avionics, and systems engineering teams to define computing, networking, and interface requirements

Support mission operations through anomaly resolution and post-flight analysis of radiation-induced effects such as SEUs and TID

Qualification

Real-time embedded systemsFault-tolerant computingC/C++PythonIP networking protocolsFPGA developmentAltium DesignerLinux-based systemsHardware/software integrationSystem-level debuggingRadiation testing

Required

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field

Strong proficiency in C/C++ and Python for embedded software development and automation

Hands-on experience with real-time systems and Linux-based embedded computing

Practical expertise in fault-tolerant computing methods (redundancy, checkpoint/restart, graceful degradation)

Knowledge of IP networking protocols (TCP/IP, UDP, routing, switching) with direct experience implementing TSN and PTP in real-time or mission-critical environments

Understanding of radiation effects on electronics and software, with experience implementing mitigation strategies at multiple system levels

Experience with system-level debugging tools and hardware/software integration

Preferred

Strong skills in writing, debugging and performance tuning low-level software for Linux and/or a RTOS, including the bootloader and device drivers

Strong skills in hardware design using Altium Designer and/or Cadence Allegro for schematics and PCB layout. Bonus points if you have experience with multi-gigabit SERDES interfaces like SGMII, PCI Express and Serial RapidIO

Solid background in FPGA development (VHDL/Verilog, synthesis, simulation, timing closure, hardware validation)

Familiarity with modern multi-core ARM-based System-on-Chip hardware, including the internal architecture

Experience writing bare-metal code

Strong skills in writing low-level software for Linux and/or a RTOS, including the bootloader and device drivers

Exposure to radiation testing (heavy-ion, proton, or TID) and analysis

Background in hardware-software co-design for reliability and fault-tolerance

Prior hands-on experience supporting space missions