Location: Huntsville, AL
Work Arrangement: Primarily On-Site
Employment Type: Direct Placement
Experience Level: 10+ Years
Citizenship: U.S. Citizenship Required
Position Overview
We are recruiting an experienced Launch Vehicle Software Engineer for a direct placement opportunity in Huntsville, Alabama. This position will join a flight software team supporting a family of solid propellant launch vehicles from initial concept and requirements definition through implementation, testing, and flight operations.
The engineer will contribute to flight software requirements, modular software architecture, embedded software development, hardware and software trade studies, device interfaces, verification and validation, Hardware in the Loop (HWIL) testing, and launch vehicle integration and flight operations.
The role requires a strong background in embedded software engineering for aerospace applications and at least 10 years of directly related industry experience. The engineer must be comfortable working independently and within small, collaborative teams to turn high-level objectives into detailed designs and operational products.
Responsibilities
- Define flight software requirements and develop modular software architectures.
- Perform selection and configuration of computing hardware, operating systems, external libraries, and other hardware and software trade studies.
- Implement software and middleware interfaces to communicate with devices such as sensors, actuators, radios, FPGAs, microprocessors, and power bus controllers.
- Develop and implement flight software.
- Support standardization of software verification and validation methodologies.
- Participate in the design and standup of Hardware in the Loop (HWIL) laboratory capabilities.
- Support launch vehicle integration, testing, and flight operations.
- Develop and implement Electrical Ground Support Equipment (EGSE) software.
Required Qualifications
- U.S. Citizenship required.
- Minimum of 10 years of directly related industry experience.
- Bachelor’s degree in Software Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
- Background in embedded software engineering for aerospace applications.
- Experience with embedded software development, with C/C++ preferred.
- Ability to identify and tailor appropriate computing hardware for the application.
- Familiarity with real-time operating systems such as FreeRTOS, Zephyr, VxWorks, or Green Hills INTEGRITY.
- Experience creating software interfaces and device drivers for serial communications, including RS-232, RS-422, and RS-485.
- Experience with Ethernet communications, including TCP and UDP, and other communication interfaces.
- Experience developing software unit test suites.
- Experience with version control systems such as Git, SVN, or similar, with Git preferred.
- Ability to troubleshoot and solve problems during operational events.
- Ability to work in small, collaborative teams and translate high-level goals into detailed designs and operational products.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills.
- Ability to complete assignments with little or no supervision.
- Ability to manage multiple tasks in a dynamic environment.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with Atlassian tools, including Confluence and Jira.
- Demonstrated ownership of embedded aerospace software throughout the entire software lifecycle.
- Avionics systems engineering experience.
- Experience developing simulation environments for flight software test campaigns.
- Experience supporting or owning other key launch vehicle systems requiring similar capabilities.
- Experience with launch vehicle avionics, including flight computers, navigation hardware, power systems, or related systems.
About the Opportunity
This direct placement opportunity provides the chance to contribute to flight software throughout the launch vehicle development lifecycle, from initial requirements and architecture through implementation, verification, integration, testing, and flight operations.
The Launch Vehicle Software Engineer will work across embedded flight software, avionics interfaces, computing hardware, real-time operating systems, HWIL testing, and launch vehicle integration. The role offers significant technical ownership and is well suited for an experienced aerospace software engineer who can operate independently while contributing effectively within a small, collaborative engineering team.
