Staff/ Senior Software Engineer – Embedded Systems

Electra•Manassas, VA

19h•$110,000 - $160,000

About The Position

Electra is hiring a Staff/Senior Software Engineer to support the design and development of embedded software for safety-critical aircraft systems. This hands-on individual contributor role contributes to the technical direction of embedded software across one or more subsystems and supports production-code development. The engineer works closely with systems, hardware, test, and certification engineers to take software from requirements through integration and flight test. Experience delivering software under DO-178C is a strong plus. The role involves developing embedded software for real-time, resource-constrained flight and avionics hardware, integrating it with RTOS or bare-metal environments, and validating it on target hardware, hardware-in-the-loop rigs, and in the lab. The engineer supports verification, certification, lab and flight-test activities, and airworthiness approval. Level (Staff or Senior) is determined by the candidate’s experience, education, demonstrated skills, and degree of independence and autonomy. The anticipated compensation range is $110,000–$160,000 USD across eligible locations. Actual compensation depends on relevant experience, skills, and geographic location. Total compensation includes a performance bonus and comprehensive benefits. The position may be subject to ITAR requirements.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in computer engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, or a related field.
5–8+ years of professional embedded software development, with production code shipped on real hardware.
Expert-level C and strong working knowledge of C++ in embedded contexts.
Experience with an RTOS such as VxWorks, INTEGRITY, PikeOS, FreeRTOS, or SafeRTOS, and/or bare-metal development on microcontrollers or SoCs such as ARM Cortex-M/R/A or PowerPC.
Hands-on debugging experience with JTAG, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and bus analyzers.
Solid grasp of real-time concepts, including scheduling, interrupts, concurrency, memory management, and deterministic behavior.
Experience writing software to formal requirements and verifying it with structured testing.
Clear written communication for design documents and technical reviews.
Ability to solve complex technical problems; the expected degree of independence, autonomy, and scope ownership varies by level.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree.
Experience developing and certifying airborne software under DO-178C or DO-178B, ideally at DAL A, B, or C.
Familiarity with DO-178C lifecycle data, including PSAC, SDP, SVP, SCMP, SQAP, SAS, and requirements/design standards.
Experience with structural coverage analysis, including statement, decision, and MC/DC coverage, and tools such as LDRA, VectorCAST, or Rapita.
Knowledge of related standards: DO-330, DO-331, DO-254, ARP4754A/B, and ARP4761.
Experience working with FAA, EASA, or DER/ODA representatives through SOI audits.
Experience with requirements and traceability tools such as DOORS, Jama, or Polarion.
Model-based development with MATLAB/Simulink and qualified code generation.
Background in flight controls, electric propulsion, battery management, or other aerospace systems.
Experience with CI/CD, Git-based workflows, and automated testing on embedded targets.

Responsibilities

Design, implement, and debug embedded software in C/C++ for real-time, resource-constrained flight and avionics hardware.
Contribute to subsystem software architecture, including partitioning, interfaces, timing budgets, and fault handling.
Work with systems engineers to derive and refine high- and low-level software requirements and maintain traceability to code and tests.
Support board packages, device drivers, and middleware for communication buses including CAN, ARINC 429, SPI, I2C, UART, and Ethernet.
Integrate software with RTOS or bare-metal environments and validate it on target hardware, HIL rigs, and in the lab.
Support design and code reviews; set and enforce coding standards such as MISRA C/C++ and static-analysis practices.
Drive verification strategy, including unit, integration, and hardware/software integration testing and structural coverage analysis.
Partner with certification and quality teams to produce plans, standards, and lifecycle data supporting airworthiness approval.
Support lab, ground, and flight-test campaigns, including root-cause analysis of field issues.
Depending on level, contribute to system integration, supplier coordination, technical problem-solving, supplier oversight, integration activities, compliance efforts, and issue resolution.