Staff Embedded Software Engineer, Communications Systems

Relativity Space•Long Beach, CA

12h•$181,000 - $248,500

About The Position

Relativity Space is building rockets to serve today’s needs and tomorrow’s breakthroughs. The Terran R vehicle will deliver customer payloads to orbit, meeting the growing demand for launch capacity. Joining Relativity means becoming part of something where autonomy, ownership, and impact exist at every level. You will be solving problems that haven’t been solved before, helping develop a rocket, a factory, and a business from the ground up. You’ll collaborate across teams, shape decisions, and see your work come to life in record time. Relativity is a place where creativity and technical rigor go hand in hand, and your voice will help define the stories we’re writing together. Now is a unique moment in time where it’s early enough to leave your mark on the product, the process, and the culture, but far enough along that Terran R is tangible and picking up momentum. The most meaningful work of your career is waiting. Join us. About the Team: The Interplanetary Sciences Program was established to expand access to scientific exploration across our solar system. Its mission is to make planetary research faster, more affordable, and more capable than ever before by rethinking how science missions are designed, built, and operated. The program aims to enable scientists to send instruments to distant worlds without decades of development or prohibitive costs. By creating a sustainable model for interplanetary exploration, we are transforming space science from an occasional event into a continuous process of discovery that accelerates knowledge, broadens participation, and inspires the next generation of explorers. About the Role: Own the application-level software on the optical terminal processor — thermal control loops, fast steering mirror control interface, and health monitoring — writing the higher-level software that sits on top of FPGA gateware and interfaces to the payload network. Develop Linux device drivers and hardware abstraction layers for optical terminal components, including thermal sensors, actuators, and steering mirror interfaces, translating raw hardware behavior into clean software interfaces. Build the software interfaces between all communication subsystems (Ka-band, UHF, optical) and the rest of the data center, including packet parsers, protocol adapters, and OSI layer 2–3 implementations that connect externally developed radios to the payload network. Implement fault detection and recovery software for communication hardware, along with command, telemetry, and mode management software for each comms subsystem — because a bug in a packet parser or driver can mean a lost downlink pass and science data that sits on disk longer than planned. Work at the system boundary where software meets real hardware, debugging integration issues across serial buses, Ethernet interfaces, and radio transceivers alongside electrical engineers and the FPGA gateware developer.

Requirements

BS/MS in Computer Science or Electrical Engineering and 5+ years of relevant experience
Strong systems programming skills in C, with experience writing software that talks directly to hardware — device drivers, register-level interfaces, or bus protocol implementations
Experience with Linux device driver development and real-time or embedded software design
Solid network programming skills: sockets, packet handling, and layer 2/3 protocol implementation
Comfort implementing control loops in software and understanding enough digital communications to interface correctly with modem hardware, even if you're not designing the waveforms yourself

Nice To Haves

Experience with spacecraft communication subsystem software or radio interface development
Familiarity with CCSDS packet structures and protocols
Hands-on experience with serial and bus interfaces to radio hardware — SPI, I2C, UART, and Ethernet-based control planes
Knowledge of optical communication terminal operation concepts or free-space optical link systems
Experience with thermal control loop implementation and tuning
Background in hardware abstraction layer design for systems with multiple hardware variants or evolving interfaces
Comfort in a hardware lab: serial consoles, logic analyzers, and debugging signal integrity issues alongside the electronics team

Responsibilities

Own the application-level software on the optical terminal processor — thermal control loops, fast steering mirror control interface, and health monitoring — writing the higher-level software that sits on top of FPGA gateware and interfaces to the payload network
Develop Linux device drivers and hardware abstraction layers for optical terminal components, including thermal sensors, actuators, and steering mirror interfaces, translating raw hardware behavior into clean software interfaces
Build the software interfaces between all communication subsystems (Ka-band, UHF, optical) and the rest of the data center, including packet parsers, protocol adapters, and OSI layer 2–3 implementations that connect externally developed radios to the payload network
Implement fault detection and recovery software for communication hardware, along with command, telemetry, and mode management software for each comms subsystem
Work at the system boundary where software meets real hardware, debugging integration issues across serial buses, Ethernet interfaces, and radio transceivers alongside electrical engineers and the FPGA gateware developer