FOUNDING LEAD AVIONICS & SOFTWARE ENGINEER Equity: 0.3% – 1% depending on experience ABOUT US We're a stealth team building space hardware at the edge of what's currently possible — high-stakes, flight-grade systems where the engineering bar is unforgiving and the upside is enormous. While we can't share full details yet, our founding and early engineering team includes talent from SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, and Starpath, the group includes people who've pulled off feats almost no one else on Earth has. ROLE OVERVIEW We are seeking a Founding Lead Avionics & Software Engineer to own the avionics and flight software stack from first principles — the flight computers, electronics, buses, and software that command, control, and keep our spacecraft alive. This is a senior technical leadership role. You will not only define and execute the avionics and flight software architecture, but also help build the engineering team, set technical standards, mentor engineers, and establish the systems, processes, and culture required to develop flight-grade hardware and software. This is not a narrow board-design or coding role. You will own the full stack: avionics architecture, flight computers, C&DH, sensor and actuator interfaces, the flight software that runs on top, fault management, and the test infrastructure that proves it all works. You will make system-level trades across hardware, software, sensors, autonomy, power, and reliability. The ideal candidate has direct experience with spacecraft avionics, flight software, embedded systems, hardware bring-up, integration and test, and technical team leadership. We recognize that very few people have all of this. What matters most is that you have exceptional fundamentals, have led real systems from concept toward flight, have managed or mentored engineers in high-performance technical environments, and can operate independently in ambiguity while making sound engineering tradeoffs. You will have direct ownership over one of the company's core technical challenges. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES - Own the avionics and flight software architecture, from early design through development, integration, test, qualification, and flight. - Lead the design of flight electronics: flight computers, command and data handling (C&DH), sensor and actuator interfaces, and the boards and buses that tie the vehicle together. - Lead the development of flight software: real-time embedded software, device drivers, board support packages, bootloaders, command and telemetry handling, scheduling, and fault management. - Architect fault detection, isolation, and recovery (FDIR), safe modes, watchdogs, redundancy, and fault tolerance appropriate for flight-grade autonomous systems. - Define avionics interfaces and bus architecture (e.g., SpaceWire, CAN, Ethernet, MIL-STD-1553, RS-422/485, SPI, I2C, UART, LVDS) and the command/telemetry protocols on top of them. - Provide technical leadership across avionics, flight software, embedded, integration, and test efforts. - Help hire, manage, mentor, and develop avionics, embedded, and flight software engineers as the team grows. - Establish engineering processes, code and design review standards, technical decision-making norms, and verification discipline appropriate for flight-grade systems. - Build the test infrastructure: flatsats, hardware-in-the-loop and processor-in-the-loop rigs, EGSE, automated test, and continuous integration for flight software. - Help define requirements, interfaces, error budgets, verification plans, and fault-handling approaches for the avionics and software subsystems and the broader vehicle. - Select, integrate, and test avionics hardware, including processors, FPGAs/SoCs, memory, and EEE / rad-tolerant parts, working with vendors and internal teams as needed. - Drive board bring-up, debugging, and root-cause resolution across hardware and software, on the bench and during integrated test campaigns. - Work closely with GNC, power, propulsion, mechanical, systems, and mission operations to close interfaces and deliver an integrated flight system. - Work closely with the founders and early engineering team to shape the technical roadmap, engineering culture, hiring plan, and long-term avionics and software strategy. - Represent the avionics and software function in cross-disciplinary design reviews, customer conversations, investor diligence, vendor discussions, and mission planning as needed. BASIC QUALIFICATIONS - Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical discipline. - 8+ years designing, building, testing, or flight-qualifying avionics, flight software, or embedded systems for spacecraft, launch vehicles, aircraft, robotics, or other high-reliability systems. - Prior experience leading technical workstreams, managing engineers, mentoring junior and mid-level engineers, or building high-performing engineering teams. - Demonstrated ability to own complex hardware/software systems from early architecture through implementation, test, validation, and operational readiness. - Strong fundamentals in embedded systems, real-time software, and digital electronics. - Proficiency in embedded C and/or C++ (Rust a plus) and experience with at least one real-time operating system (e.g., FreeRTOS, VxWorks, RTEMS) or bare-metal embedded development. - Experience with avionics hardware: schematic capture, board-level design review, digital interfaces and buses, and hardware bring-up and debugging. - Experience with fault-tolerant design, FDIR, watchdogs, redundancy, and safe-mode behavior. - Experience taking software and hardware beyond the bench into integration, hardware-in-the-loop, processor-in-the-loop, or representative testbeds. - Lab fluency: comfortable with oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, debuggers, EGSE, and test automation. - Ability to work ind