Back-end Ground Software Engineer III - Lunar Permanence

Blue Origin•Littleton, CO

About The Position

This role is part of Blue Origin’s Lunar Permanence business unit, which develops Blue Moon landers and related products. The team is building sustainable infrastructure to transport crew and cargo from Earth to the lunar surface. As a Ground Software Engineer, you will build, test, and integrate software for Lunar Permanence Mission Operations Centers used to fly lunar space vehicles. You will work closely with space vehicle and ground subsystem teams to develop, test, and deploy software that enables Earth-based operators to perform mission-critical functions. These include flight and ground system integration and testing, mission activity planning, telemetry processing and display, spacecraft health monitoring and fault detection, and operations training. The role involves designing and delivering safety-critical mission operations software, coordinating with multidisciplinary teams, and supporting its verification, qualification, integration, and release. You will contribute to documentation and support software operations during training, validation, spacecraft integration, and flight. Blue Origin seeks someone dedicated to software quality and safe human spaceflight.

Requirements

B.S. or higher degree in software or an engineering-related field.
At least 5 years of software development experience.
Proven software development experience in Python and/or Rust.
Willingness to work and integrate with frontend developers and React-based frameworks.
Experience across the full software engineering lifecycle, including system design, implementation and verification, system integration, and release.
Skills in software build automation, continuous integration, configuration management, verification, and deployment.
Experience designing and implementing scalable software architectures.
Familiarity with Linux and basic Unix system administration.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
Ability to work collaboratively in cross-functional teams.
Passion for spaceflight and space exploration.

Nice To Haves

At least 3 years of proven experience developing software for critical applications such as aviation, spaceflight, nuclear power, or business-critical web services.
Experience crafting and developing software for aerospace operations.
Familiarity with infrastructure-as-code, services-as-code, and cloud technologies.
Understanding of space-based communications protocols such as CCSDS.
Familiarity with cybersecurity practices for software system safety.
Compliance experience with NPR 7150.2x.
Experience with fault-tolerant software design, human error assessment and prevention, and fault tolerance.
Experience with spacecraft subsystems and associated software.

Responsibilities

Design, implement, test, verify, and deploy mission operations and safety-critical software systems supporting spaceflight operations.
Collaborate with engineers across space vehicle systems, mission-control infrastructure, operations, and customer teams to define software requirements, architectures, and designs.
Develop rapid prototypes to evaluate concepts and quantify technical risks.
Coordinate with mission-control infrastructure and mission system engineers to plan, develop, and lead system verification and qualification.
Create and contribute to software architecture and design documents, verification plans, user manuals, and training materials.
Follow software development processes that meet Blue Origin and customer standards for software safety and reliability.
Support frequent software update cycles for pre-flight testing, mission validation exercises, and operations training.
Maintain, correct, and improve mission-control software during operator training, ground data system verification and certification, spacecraft integration, and flight.
Integrate software components, build and run unit- and system-level tests, validate with Software-in-the-Loop and Hardware-in-the-Loop simulators, and release certified code.

Benefits

Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
Basic and supplemental life insurance.
Paid parental leave.
Short- and long-term disability.
401(k) with company match of up to 5%.
Education Support Program.
Stock options for regular employees working at least 20 hours per week.
Up to four weeks of paid time off per year based on weekly scheduled hours.
Up to 14 company-paid holidays.
Employees may be eligible for benefits and bonuses based on role type, job level, individual contributions, company results, or other factors; amounts and eligibility are not guaranteed.