Senior Flight Software Engineer

Are you ready to take on cutting-edge engineering challenges? Do you thrive on solving complex problems through collaboration? Do you want to see your work have a real, tangible impact? If so, you’ll fit right in at Lodestar Space. We’re a dynamic, multidisciplinary team of doers, passionately applying robotics to solve the toughest problems in the space sector. We’re looking for a Senior Flight Software Engineer to lead the development of our Flight Software stack from the ground up.

In this role, you’ll architect, implement, and test our onboard flight software—bringing together robotic arm control, AI-driven vision and prediction systems, and more, into a platform agnostic, mission-critical system. You’ll be involved in every phase of the development lifecycle, from concept and requirements definition to testing, deployment, and operations. If you’ve worked across the full engineering lifecycle and understand the nuances of spaceflight software, this role is for you.

What You’ll Do

• Lead the end-to-end development of Lodestar’s core flight software system.
• Design and implement updatable fault-tolerant software for complex payloads in space.
• Integrate AI-based vision, robotic arm motion planning and control, and internal and external control into flight code.
• Collaborate closely with hardware, systems, robotics, and AI/ML teams to ensure seamless integration.
• Own architecture decisions and build a scalable, modular, and reusable codebase.
• Contribute to defining requirements, test plans, and operational procedures.

What We’re Looking For

We’re looking for someone who’s hands-on, passionate, and ready to take ownership of a vital part of our mission. You should be comfortable leading, designing, and building in a fast-moving environment.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of relevant industry experience.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related field or demonstrated an equivalent level of knowledge.
• Strong communicator and self-starter; able to work independently and in a collaborative team.
• Experience with the full software development lifecycle.
• Experience with real-time systems.
• Excellent development and debugging skills.
• Hands-on proficiency in C++ and Python.
• Confident in debugging software/hardware interactions and possible failure modes.

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong understanding of computer architecture, operating systems, data structures, and networking.
• Familiarity with relevant software standards and protocols (e.g. CCSDS, TCP/UDP, DDS).
• Experience developing flight software for spacecraft, launch vehicles, or payloads.
• Experience with real-time embedded systems.
• Background in developing fault-tolerant, high-reliability, and on-orbit upgradeable systems.
• Proficiency in using version control tools such as Git or SVN.
• Comfortable working on Linux-based platforms.
• Experience with flight software frameworks such as F’ (F Prime) or cFS.
• Knowledge of inter-process communication techniques and protocols.
• Familiarity with containerization technologies such as Docker.

Important Information

For security reasons background checks will be undertaken prior to any employment offers being made to an applicant. These checks will include nationality checks as it is a requirement of this position that you be eligible to access equipment and data regulated by the United States' International Traffic in Arms Regulations. Under these Regulations, you may be ineligible for this role if you do not hold citizenship of United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Switzerland, the European Union or a country that is part of NATO, or if you hold ineligible dual citizenship or nationality.

Benefits

• Competitive Salary (based on experience).
• Equity pool options.
• Vibrant, open-plan office in London.
• 28 Days Annual Leave.
• Private Medical Insurance.
• Be part of a scrappy, dynamic, multidisciplinary, collaborative crew.

At Lodestar Space, we value people with unique experiences and skill sets. If you’re interested in this role and want to make an impact on a global scale, please apply!