Spacecraft Product Software Engineer

About this role

Spacecraft Product Software Engineer

San Jose, United States

About Astro Digital

Astro Digital designs, builds, and operates a diverse range of small satellite systems supporting space-based turnkey missions for several business applications, including earth observation, communications, in-orbit demonstrations, risk reduction, science, and exploration. Astro Digital is headquartered in Littleton, Colorado with 110+ employees and infrastructure around the globe.

Position Summary

Astro Digital is seeking a Spacecraft Product Software Engineer to work with our Embedded Software, Hardware, and Systems Engineering teams to transform internally developed spacecraft technologies into productized subsystems that can be delivered, integrated, and supported across a broad customer base.

This role bridges the gap between mission-specific development and commercial product development. You will help take spacecraft subsystem technologies that can be standardized into repeatable products, define software architectures and interfaces that support multiple customer applications, and ensure subsystem software is robust, documented, configurable, and maintainable throughout the product lifecycle.

The ideal candidate understands both embedded spacecraft software and product engineering principles. Success in this role requires balancing customer requirements, software maintainability, hardware constraints, documentation quality, and long-term product strategy.

We offer a hybrid schedule that blends in-person collaboration from either our Littleton, CO or San Jose, CA facility, and remote flexibility.

Primary Duties & Responsibilities

Productization

• Partner with Embedded Software Engineers to evolve internally developed spacecraft subsystem software into customer-facing products
• Identify opportunities to increase software reuse, standardization, and configurability across subsystem offerings
• Drive the transition from mission-specific implementations to scalable, product-oriented software architectures
• Define software release strategies, versioning approaches, and long-term sustainment plans for subsystem products

Subsystem Software Development

• Develop software components supporting Astro Digital avionics and spacecraft subsystem products, including onboard computers, communications systems, power electronics, network routers, and other spacecraft hardware
• Develop APIs, middleware, services, command interfaces, and telemetry interfaces that simplify customer integration
• Support software integration, verification, qualification, and acceptance testing activities
• Participate in subsystem bring-up, debugging, and hardware-software integration efforts

Customer Enablement

• Work with customers to understand integration requirements and deployment environments
• Define and maintain customer-facing software documentation, interface control documents (ICDs), software manuals, and integration guides
• Support customer integration and troubleshooting activities throughout product deployment
• Participate in technical interchange meetings, design reviews, and customer demonstrations

Product Lifecycle Management

• Support product roadmaps and feature planning activities
• Evaluate customer requests and determine whether enhancements should be incorporated into the product baseline
• Balance short-term customer needs with long-term product maintainability
• Drive continuous improvement based on manufacturing feedback, integration experiences, qualification testing, and customer operations

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related field
• 5+ years of software engineering experience
• Strong proficiency in C/C++ and Python
• Experience developing software for bare metal embedded systems
• Experience developing software for Linux
• Experience integrating software with hardware systems
• Familiarity with communications interfaces such as SPI, UART, I2C, CAN, TCP, and UDP
• Experience with software configuration management and Git-based development
• Strong debugging and troubleshooting skills
• Strong technical writing and communication skills

Preferred Qualifications

• 8+ years of software engineering experience
• Experience developing embedded software for aerospace products
• Familiarity with spacecraft avionics and subsystem architectures
• Experience developing embedded software for the STM32 microcontroller
• Experience working directly with customers to support product deployment and integration
• Experience creating software APIs, SDKs, or integration frameworks
• Experience developing board support packages (BSPs), drivers, and middleware
• Familiarity with spacecraft telemetry, command, and communications architectures
• Experience with automated testing and hardware-in-the-loop test environments

Pay Transparency

Astro Digital employees are provided with a comprehensive benefits package that includes company stock options, healthcare, 401k retirement plan, and PTO. The range of possible compensation for this role is $140k-$180k annually, depending on candidate experience, alignment, and location.

Physical Demands

This position requires the ability to lift and move objects weighing up to 40 Lbs. Occasional standing, walking, bending, and reaching may be required.

Export Statement

This position requires access to export-controlled commodities, technical data, technology, software, and services. U.S. citizenship, U.S. legal permanent resident status, or protected person status under 22 CFR §120.15 and 8 U.S.C. § 1324b(a)(3) is required.