At Vast, our mission is to contribute to a future where billions of people are living and thriving in space. Vast is developing next-generation space stations to ensure a continuous human presence in space for America and its allies, enabling advanced microgravity research and manufacturing, and unlocking a new space economy for government, corporate, and private customers. Using an incremental, hardware-rich and low-cost approach, Vast is rapidly developing its multi-module Haven Station. Haven Demo’s 2025 success made Vast the only operational commercial space station company to fly and operate its own spacecraft. Next, Haven-1 is expected to become the world’s first commercial space station when it launches, followed by additional Haven modules to enable permanent human presence by 2030. Our team is all-in, committed to executing our mission safely and on time. If you want to work with the most talented people on Earth furthering space exploration for humanity, come join us.
Vast is looking for a Principal Flight Software Engineer, reporting to Vice President, Software, to support the development of the systems that will be required for the design and build of artificial-gravity human-rated space stations.
This will be a full-time, exempt position located in our Long Beach location.
You will develop fault-tolerant code for safety-critical systems, and work closely with the avionics team to integrate flight code with avionics hardware. Most importantly, you will work as part of a team that believes that finding and fixing errors is a positive experience that will make everyone’s work better, and makes the team stronger as we continuously improve our processes and products.
Responsibilities:
- Work with the team to create highly reliable flight software for all Haven missions.
- Work cross functionally with all other disciplines GNC, Thermal, Propulsion, Power, and ECLSS to support algorithm implementation and integration into the flight software.
- Assess and critique code, ensuring adherence to best practices and established standards, in code reviews.
- Work alongside GNC engineers to develop and integrate algorithms.
- Develop simulation and modeling software for a high fidelity real time simulation system.
- Develop tools to allow the use of Hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) testing environments.
- Develop driver-level code to interface with radios, sensors, and actuators onboard for all Haven missions.
- Develop and maintain the Telemetry and Commanding Systems which will be used to communicate with our vehicles.
- Develop unit and integrated tests, and establish continuous integration framework for flight.
Minimum Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering or other engineering discipline.
- 15+ years coding with C++.
Preferred Qualifications:
- M.Sc. in computer, math, physics, mechanical or aerospace engineering, or a relevant discipline.
- 10+ years of experience in Aerospace.
- Knowledge of control systems, orbital mechanics, and modeling and simulation techniques.
- Experience developing flight code for space or satellite applications.
- Fault-tolerant and safety-critical software design.
- Experience developing software for complex systems such as spacecraft, aircraft or autonomous vehicles.
- Experience with Real-time Systems.
- Understanding of Linux kernel software and drivers.
- Network programming experience.
- Familiarity with the Atlassian Suite (JIRA, Bitbucket, Confluence).
- Familiarity with Git, Cmake, and GNU tools.
- Able to work in a Linux environment.
Additional Requirements:
- Willingness to work evenings and/or weekends to support critical mission milestones.
U.S. EXPORT CONTROL COMPLIANCE STATUS
The person hired will have access to information and items subject to U.S. export controls, and therefore, must either be a “U.S. person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.62 or otherwise eligible for deemed export licensing. This status includes U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, lawful permanent residents (green card holders), and asylees and refugees with such status granted, not pending.EQUAL OPPORTUNITY
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Vast Long Beach, California, USA Office
2851 Orange Ave, Long Beach, CA, United States, 90755
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