Embedded Software Engineer
About The Position
EraDrive builds autonomy software and hardware for spacecraft to see, decide, and act with minimal human control. Its software is already operating in space, and the company is expanding its product family for rendezvous, on-orbit inspection, and space-based sensing. This is an early-team, 0-to-1 role focused on owning the core firmware and embedded software foundation of Era-Node, EraDrive’s flight autonomy module, from initial architecture through deployment in orbit. The engineer will define the firmware architecture, develop bare-metal and RTOS-based software, write low-level hardware interfaces, and implement deterministic state machines for spacecraft sensors, compute systems, and host-spacecraft interfaces. The role also bridges hardware and autonomy software by optimizing compute pipelines so onboard GNC and AI/ML algorithms execute efficiently and with low latency. The engineer will work closely with payload hardware and autonomy teams to manage hardware resources reliably in the radiation-prone space environment. The position includes custom-board bring-up, hardware-software integration, precise timing and synchronization, development of hardware-in-the-loop test platforms, and support for environmental testing such as thermal-vacuum and vibration campaigns.
Requirements
- Degree in computer engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, mechatronics, or a closely related field.
- Proven experience developing embedded software for custom hardware from initial bring-up through deployment; space, aerospace, robotics, or other high-reliability experience is preferred.
- Deep understanding of hardware-software interfaces and low-level state-machine design.
- Deep proficiency writing bare-metal and RTOS-based software in C/C++.
- Experience optimizing embedded systems for computationally heavy workloads such as GNC, computer vision, or AI/ML, including familiarity with hardware acceleration, SIMD, memory-bandwidth optimization, and real-time constraints.
- Extensive hands-on experience implementing and debugging device drivers for serial protocols such as SPI, I2C, UART, CAN, and RS-422/RS-485.
- Strong fundamentals in microcontroller and microprocessor architectures, memory management, bootloaders, and interrupt-driven programming.
- Direct experience addressing radiation effects such as SEUs, implementing fault-tolerant code, and designing systems that cannot be physically reset or repaired.
- High comfort level using embedded debugging tools such as JTAG, SWD, and GDB, as well as oscilloscopes and logic analyzers.
- Clear communication and documentation habits and ability to collaborate with electrical, systems, and autonomy engineers.
Nice To Haves
- Experience with edge AI/ML accelerators, GPU programming such as CUDA, or NPUs in a space or high-reliability context.
- Experience with FPGA development using Verilog or VHDL, or software interfacing closely with FPGAs for high-speed data routing.
- Experience with embedded Linux, custom kernel modules, or device-tree configuration.
- Experience writing core flight software or firmware for a successfully deployed spacecraft payload.
Responsibilities
- Own the end-to-end embedded software architecture for Era-Node and develop reliable bare-metal and RTOS-based firmware in C/C++.
- Optimize compute pipelines, memory access patterns such as DMA, and hardware accelerators for onboard GNC algorithms and AI/ML computer vision models.
- Write and optimize low-level drivers for image sensors, compute modules, memory devices, and spacecraft interfaces.
- Develop deterministic state machines and low-level logic for precise timing, interrupt routines, and synchronization across optical sensors and compute nodes.
- Implement, debug, and optimize serial communications software for inter-board and spacecraft-to-payload links, including RS-422, SpaceWire, CAN, SPI, I2C, and UART.
- Implement software fault tolerance and radiation-mitigation strategies, including watchdog timers, memory scrubbing, and handling Single Event Upset bit flips.
- Lead custom-hardware board bring-up and use debugging and lab tools to verify hardware-software integration and timing constraints.
- Architect and implement microsecond-precise timing and hardware-triggering systems to synchronize data capture between flight cameras and motion hardware on robotic lab testbeds.
- Develop hardware-in-the-loop test platforms integrating flight computers, sensors, and cameras.
- Support thermal-vacuum and vibration test campaigns by writing automated test scripts and diagnostic firmware to validate hardware health.
