ABOUT Firefly Aerospace is a space and defense technology company on a mission to reliably and repeatedly launch, land, and operate space systems from Earth to the Moon and beyond. As the partner of choice for critical space missions, Firefly is the first commercial company to launch a satellite to orbit with 24-hour notice and the first company to achieve a successful Moon landing. Headquartered in north Austin, Texas, Firefly is looking for passionate, hardworking innovators to join our team and help fuel our successful trajectory into space.
SUMMARY Our computer vision system that landed on the moon combines a flexible, multi-camera hardware architecture with onboard perception, navigation, and state estimation. Firefly is seeking a Platform Engineer to lead the development of critical C++ platform software and firmware across our onboard software stack.
In this role, you will build the systems software, libraries, and interfaces that connect perception algorithms with cameras, compute hardware, and flight software. You will own core components of our customer-facing SDK, develop general onboard applications, and work hands-on with hardware teams to integrate sensors and compute platforms into reliable end-to-end systems. You will work at the intersection of modern C++ software engineering, embedded systems, and spacecraft operations to create a reliable, reusable platform capable of supporting missions beyond the laboratoryand beyond Earth.
The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in modern C++ and low-level systems software, an interest in expanding into computer vision and spacecraft applications, and an appetite for solving complex problems where software, hardware, and mission requirements meet.
This position may be based onsite at Firefly Aerospace's facilities in Littleton, Colorado or Austin, Texas. Fully remote candidates may also be considered, provided they can travel to Austin for approximately one week every other monthup to six weeks annuallyto support Assembly, Integration & Test (AI&T) activities and mission operations. Additional travel may occasionally be required based on program needs.
RESPONSIBILITIES - Design, develop, integrate, and test critical features within our onboard C++ software stack
- Build and maintain core components of the Sol3 SDK, including reusable C++ libraries, APIs, tools, and abstractions used across engineering teams
- Write general systems software involving inter-process communication (IPC), device and sensor interfaces (GMSL, I2C, SPI), and networking (TCP/IP, UDP, Spacelink, CCSDS)
- Develop and optimize multithreaded, low-latency software for compute-, memory-, and bandwidth-constrained embedded environments
- Integrate cameras, sensors, heterogeneous compute platforms, and networking interfaces into reliable end-to-end systems
- Partner with hardware teams to test user flows from their perspective and implement solutions that can be integrated into the SDK
- Help integrate the perception team's algorithms into Sol3 SDK core components, defining maintainable interfaces between algorithmic and platform code
- Develop onboard applications supporting perception, navigation, and mission operations
- Support software-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop, spacecraft integration, mission simulation, and flight operations activities
- Diagnose complex system-level issues spanning software, firmware, and hardware; contribute to architectural decisions, conduct technical reviews, and mentor other engineers
QUALIFICATIONS Required - Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Robotics, or a related technical field; equivalent practical experience may be considered
- 3+ years of professional software engineering experience developing complex production systems
- Experience developing and debugging software in embedded Linux environments and integrating software with hardware, sensors, and external systems
- Strong proficiency in modern C++, including multithreading, memory management, debugging, and performance optimization
- Experience writing general systems software: IPC mechanisms, hardware buses and sensor interfaces (e.g., GMSL, I2C, SPI), and network protocols (e.g., TCP/IP)
- Experience designing reusable libraries, APIs, platform services, or SDK components used across engineering teams
- Strong understanding of software architecture, algorithms, automated testing, and maintainable software design
- Demonstrated ability to resolve complex system-level issues and communicate effectively across software, algorithm, hardware, and systems engineering teams
Desired - Master's or PhD in Computer Science, Robotics, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field
- Experience developing software or firmware for spacecraft, aerospace, robotics, autonomous vehicles, defense systems, or other mission-critical applications
- Experience integrating cameras or perception sensors with embedded Linux, GPUs, FPGAs, or other heterogeneous compute platforms
- Familiarity with computer vision, visual navigation, state estimation, localization, mapping, or perception pipelines
- Experience with 3D geometry, coordinate transformations, camera models, or spatial data structures
- Proficiency in Python for tooling, automation, and testing
- Experience with flight software interfaces, telemetry and commanding, software- or hardware-in-the-loop testing, vehicle integration, or mission operations
Firefly offers outstanding benefits for our employees, including generous health, dental and vision plans with low plan deductibles, parental leave, educational reimbursement, short term disability, and flexible PTO options. Firefly Aerospace, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Firefly is governed based on merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status
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