Principal Software Engineer

Position Summary

Airbus U.S. is looking for an enthusiastic and creative principal software engineer to develop and test spacecraft flight software. We're looking for candidates who can bring exceptional programming skills and experience in embedded software development and testing to the team.

The Principal Software Engineer’s primary responsibility will be contributing to the development and testing of Airbus U.S.’s satellite flight software. This engineer will be involved in the full lifecycle of flight software development, from requirements definition through operations. Because we are a small team where each person takes on many roles, this engineer will also contribute to mission concept development, in‑house modeling and simulation capabilities, and proposal writing.

Being at the cutting edge of space technology, we need someone who is eager to learn, grow, and take on new and potentially unfamiliar challenges. There is no shortage of fascinating problems to solve.

The Principal Software Engineer will provide autonomous support of complex assignments under the leadership of the Software Team Lead and Software Engineering Manager. The Principal Software Engineer will have project and subject‑matter responsibility and authority.

• Contribute to the development of new satellite flight software for Airbus U.S. satellite platforms.
• Support development and integration of GNC algorithms.
• Support development and modification of flight software hosted on new flight computer designs.
• Develop in‑house tools to analyze flight software performance and assess its compatibility with new mission and conops.
• Develop and execute flight software verification and validation tests at the unit, module, subsystem, and platform level.

• Develop and execute FSW verifications tests using both proprietary satellite digital twin software and a Hardware in the Loop (HIL) Flat Sat.
• Establish and document test methodologies and descriptions to test compliance with Airbus and customer‑based requirements.
• Develop and implement software and tools for ground support equipment to test and validate flight software.
• Contribute to document management, including versioning, bug reporting, and test plan documentation.
• Oversee and conduct official validation tests.

• Support working groups, both internal and with customers and/or vendors.
• Support proposal writing, new business.
• Assess the software impacts of new hardware, conops, and missions.

• Bachelor’s degree in STEM (Science, Technical, Engineering, Math) or related scientific areas.
• Preferred:
  Masters in STEM (Science, Technical, Engineering, Math) or related scientific areas.

• A minimum of 15 years with a bachelor’s degree, or 12 years with a master’s degree.
• Proven track‑record of working with space hardware and/or flight software systems, starting from conceptual designs and tradeoffs through detailed design, development, manufacture, integration, test, deployment, and operations.

• Insatiable curiosity and a demonstrated ability to learn and work independently.
• Proficiency in C/C++.
• Expertise in one or more of the following:
  • GNC algorithms design, analysis, testing, and implementation.
  • New device bring‑up.
  • BSP implementation.
  • Embedded software development and testing.
  • Cybersecurity.
  • Device driver development and testing of software/hardware interfaces.
  • Real‑time operating systems programming, debugging, and testing.
  • Functional validation of embedded software on hardware.
  • Software safety assurance.
  • Network topology and configuration.
  • Simulators: numerical, emulator, and hardware in the loop.
  • Software requirements and configuration management.

• Periodic travel (less than 20%) to Airbus U.S. facilities or partner companies.
• Occasional international travel to collaborate with European Airbus counterparts.
• U.S. citizenship is required.

• Ability to obtain and maintain a government security clearance.
• Active DoD security clearance at Secret or above highly desirable.