Exploration

Exploration

Spacecraft Flight Computing Senior Engineer

California · Senior · Contract

Work authorization requiredDetected 18 days ago
PythonC++ExpressLinuxComputer VisionCompliancePCB DesignAltiumCadenceFPGAVHDLVerilogEmbedded SystemsAvionicsSystems EngineeringRoboticsElectrical EngineeringHardware DesignTCP/IPCommunication

About the role

  • The Exploration Company is seeking a highly skilled Spacecraft Flight Computing Engineer with expertise in real-time, fault-tolerant computer systems running a RTOS and/or Linux.
  • The engineer will also apply knowledge of IP networking, including Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) and Precision Time Protocol (PTP), to enable deterministic, synchronized communication across spacecraft subsystems.
  • What's special about TEC's Flight Computing team?

Responsibilities

  • Design, implement, and maintain real-time embedded computing systems for spacecraft avionics.
  • Develop and optimize our RTOS and Linux-based real-time operating environments, including kernel configuration, bootloader, device drivers, and system-level performance tuning.
  • Perform hardware design tasks, including schematic capture, PCB layout, and component selection using Altium Designer, with emphasis on radiation-tolerant design practices.
  • Develop, synthesize, and validate FPGA designs (VHDL/Verilog), incorporating mitigation strategies such as TMR, ECC, and scrubbing.
  • Design, configure, and troubleshoot IP networking protocols, with focus on TSN for deterministic networking and PTP for precise time synchronization across spacecraft systems.
  • Collaborate closely with flight software, avionics, and systems engineering teams to define computing, networking, and interface requirements.
  • Support mission operations through anomaly resolution and post-flight analysis of radiation-induced effects such as SEUs and TID.
  • Strong skills in hardware design using Altium Designer and/or Cadence Allegro for schematics and PCB layout.
  • Background in hardware-software co-design for reliability and fault-tolerance.
  • Direct involvement in building mission-critical spacecraft systems that operate in extreme environments.

Requirements

  • Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
  • Strong proficiency in C/C++ and Python for embedded software development and automation.
  • Hands-on experience with real-time systems and Linux-based embedded computing.
  • Practical expertise in fault-tolerant computing methods (redundancy, checkpoint/restart, graceful degradation).
  • Knowledge of IP networking protocols (TCP/IP, UDP, routing, switching) with direct experience implementing TSN and PTP in real-time or mission-critical environments.
  • Understanding of radiation effects on electronics and software, with experience implementing mitigation strategies at multiple system levels.
  • Experience with system-level debugging tools and hardware/software integration.
  • Familiarity with modern multi-core ARM-based System-on-Chip hardware, including the internal architecture.
  • Experience writing bare-metal code.

Compensation

  • Competitive compensation, comprehensive benefits, and opportunities for technical growth.

Benefits

  • Bonus points if you have experience with multi-gigabit SERDES interfaces like SGMII, PCI Express and Serial RapidIO.
  • Competitive compensation, comprehensive benefits, and opportunities for technical growth.

Company info

  • We're Agile - we make decisions fast whilst keeping our goals and systems in mind
  • We're Open and Collaborative - we are transparent about risks and obstacles, so that we can cooperate to overcome them
  • We have a lot of Fun - we refuel our energy knowing we are democratising space. It's a wonderful and rare opportunity, are YOU up for the challenge?

Visa & Work Authorization

  • Relocation assistance is provided for those willing to relocate including visa sponsorship where applicable.
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This listing is sourced directly from Exploration's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.