Cowboy Space is a startup building orbital data-center satellites and an in-house rocket program to launch them.
Location: San Carlos, CA or Seattle, WA (on-site) Cowboy Space Corp. is building the infrastructure to power and connect the orbital economy. Our satellites operate in Low Earth Orbit to collect sunlight and enable a new class of capabilities—from powering on-orbit compute, to transmitting energy via infrared lasers (space-to-earth and space-to-space), powering on-orbit compute to delivering secure, high-bandwidth optical data. By rethinking how energy and data are generated and distributed in space, we’re unlocking entirely new ways to operate both in orbit and on Earth. Founded in 2024 by Baiju Bhatt (co-founder of Robinhood), Cowboy Space Corp. is backed by leading investors and built by a team from top aerospace and defense organizations. We’re moving quickly to solve complex technical challenges and build a new category of space infrastructure. The Role We're looking for a Senior Flight Software Engineer to own the software that flies on our spacecraft. You'll be responsible for the payload flight software—written in Rust—spanning attitude and pointing state machines, on-board command handling, and telemetry and data storage. Today this work is distributed across several engineers; we need a senior technical owner to unify the architecture, set the patterns and conventions the team builds on, and drive the software 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 Basic 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 Preferred Qualifications - Bachelor's or advanced degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field - Prior experience as a technical lead or architect for a spacecraft flight software effort - Production Rust experience, particularly in embedded or systems contexts - Experience with attitude determination and control or pointing systems from the software side - Experience with FDIR design, redundancy management, and autonomous fault response - Experience building simulation, software-in-the-loop, and hardware-in-the-loop test environments - Experience supporting launch, commissioning, and on-orbit operations, including anomaly investigation - Familiarity with radiation effects and other space-environment considerations for software design - Experience thriving in fast-paced, high-ownership startup environments with rapid iteration cycles Compensation and Benefits: The salary range for this position is $200,000 – $250,000 annually. The actual base salary offered will depend on factors such as job-related skills, experience, qualifications, and internal equity. - Equity in Cowboy Space Corp. - Employees and their eligible dependents may enroll in medical, dental, and vision insurance - 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 ITAR Requirements - Export Control Requirement: To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), applicants must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about ITAR here https://deccs.pmddtc.state.gov/deccs. Disclaimer This job description is a summary of the primary duties and responsibilities of the job and position. It is not intended to be a comprehensive or all-inclusive listing of duties and responsibilities. Contents are subject to change at Cowboy Space Corp.’s discretion. Cowboy Space Corp. is an equal employment opportunity employer. We consider individuals for employment or promotion according to their skills, abilities and exper