Principal Firmware Engineer

Firefly Aerospace•Cedar Park, TX

About The Position

As a Principal Firmware Engineer, you will serve as a senior technical authority and hands-on contributor shaping firmware for Firefly’s launch vehicles, spacecraft, and ground systems. You will own complex firmware architectures, drive technical decisions across multiple programs, and mentor engineers while contributing to design, implementation, and debugging. The role requires deep embedded firmware expertise, system-level thinking, and the ability to influence technical direction across hardware, software, and systems teams. You will address challenging firmware problems, establish best practices, and help ensure the reliability and performance required for spaceflight in a fast-paced environment that values technical ownership, creativity, and collaboration.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field.
At least 10 years of embedded firmware or embedded software development experience.
Strong proficiency in C, and preferably C++, on bare-metal, RTOS, and/or embedded Linux targets.
Deep experience with microcontrollers, ARM architectures, and low-level hardware interfaces such as SPI, I2C, UART, CAN, and Ethernet.
Hands-on laboratory experience bringing up and debugging firmware on embedded hardware.
Demonstrated ability to architect complex firmware systems and mentor other engineers.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain technical trade-offs to engineers and non-engineers.
Ability to thrive in a dynamic, fast-paced environment with evolving requirements.
Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain required U.S. Department of State authorizations for compliance with U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including ITAR.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree in a related field.
Experience with real-time operating systems such as FreeRTOS or VxWorks, and/or embedded Linux.
Familiarity with high-reliability or safety-critical firmware development practices.
Experience with SoC platforms, bootloaders, and board support packages.
Exposure to radiation effects, fault tolerance, or space-qualified systems.
Experience integrating firmware with FPGAs or custom ASICs.
Comfort using scripts, build systems, and command-line tools such as Python and bash.
Prior experience in aerospace, space systems, defense, or other high-reliability domains.

Responsibilities

Define and own firmware architectures for critical avionics systems, making technical decisions about design approaches, interfaces, and trade-offs involving performance, reliability, schedule, and risk.
Design, implement, and debug complex firmware in C/C++ for embedded targets, including drivers, bootloaders, board support packages, real-time control loops, and hardware abstraction layers.
Guide and mentor firmware and embedded software engineers; lead design reviews, establish coding and verification standards, and improve the team’s technical capability.
Collaborate with hardware, FPGA, GNC, systems, and software engineers to integrate firmware with sensors, actuators, processors, and higher-level software.
Promote high-reliability firmware practices, including verification, fault handling, configuration management, and flight-worthiness considerations.
Help refine team processes for design, analysis, testing, and verification and validation.