Flight Dynamics Software Engineer III - Blue Ring
About The Position
This role is part of Blue National Security (BNS), which designs, develops, and delivers launch and spacecraft systems for national security missions. The position supports Blue Ring, a hybrid solar-electric and chemical-propelled spacecraft, by developing, testing, and deploying its ground-based Flight Dynamics System (FDS). The FDS supports orbit determination, maneuver planning, collision avoidance, engine commodity tracking, and flight dynamics product generation. As part of a team of engineers and mission operators, the engineer works with space vehicle and ground system teams, the Astrodynamics and Trajectory eXecution (ATX) team, and mission operations. The role builds and operates microservices and data pipelines that put astrodynamics algorithms into production mission-critical systems, helping keep Blue Ring vehicles safely on orbit. Work includes rapid prototyping, software integration and verification, simulator testing, certified releases, operational support, and user documentation. Interviews include a technical assessment. Relocation is provided.
Requirements
- B.S. or higher degree in computer engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, mathematics, physics, aerospace engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
- 5+ years of software development experience.
- Experience across the full software development lifecycle, including system design and analysis, requirements capture and development, software implementation and verification, system integration, qualification, and release.
- Experience in software build automation, continuous integration, configuration management, verification, and deployment.
- Demonstrated software development skills in multiple languages and ability to implement in the language most appropriate to the problem domain.
- Familiarity with the Linux environment and comfort with basic Unix system administration activities.
- Ability to earn trust and maintain positive, professional relationships.
- Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.
Nice To Haves
- Experience designing and developing ground software for space flight operations.
- Expertise developing complex applications in Python.
- Experience with REST, Kafka, gRPC, web development, and/or database development and interfaces.
- Experience with Infrastructure as Code and cloud technologies.
- Familiarity with astrodynamics concepts such as orbit determination, maneuver planning, or collision avoidance.
- Familiarity developing software systems for telemetry data processing, fault monitoring, or flight dynamics.
- Familiarity with mission activity planning and scheduling.
- Familiarity with spacecraft ephemeris generation and dissemination.
- Familiarity with conjunction data processing and space situational awareness.
- Experience with spacecraft subsystems and associated subsystem software.
Responsibilities
- Design, implement, test, verify, and deploy FDS microservices supporting orbit maintenance, collision avoidance, engine commodity bookkeeping, and flight dynamics product generation.
- Work with engineers across flight vehicle systems, mission control infrastructure, operations, and customer teams to define software requirements, architectures, and designs.
- Translate ATX-developed astrodynamics algorithms into production services, bridging numerical methods and software engineering.
- Develop rapid prototypes to prove concepts and quantify technical risks.
- Coordinate with systems infrastructure and systems engineers to plan, develop, and verify software products against requirements and safety-critical standards.
- Produce user documentation, including software architecture and design documentation, verification plans, user manuals, and training materials.
- Follow software development processes that meet Blue Origin and customer-required standards for software safety and reliability.
- Support frequent software update cycles for pre-flight testing, mission validation exercises, and operations training events.
- Support mission control software operations through maintenance, defect correction, and improvements during operator training, ground data system verification, validation and certification, spacecraft integration, and flight.
- Integrate software components; develop and run unit-level and system-level tests; validate with Software-in-the-Loop and Hardware-in-the-Loop simulators; and release certified code.
- Support development of software design materials, verification plans, user manuals, and training materials.
Benefits
- Medical insurance
- Dental insurance
- 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
- Depending on role type and job level, employees may be eligible for benefits and bonuses based on company intent and other factors; amounts and eligibility are not guaranteed.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
