Software Engineer I/II, Flight Software

Los Angeles, CA

At Heart Aerospace we are developing the ES-30, a regional hybrid-electric airplane with a capacity of 30 passengers, an electric zero-emission range of 200 km and an extended hybrid range of 400 km. Heart is targeting type certification of the ES-30 by the end of the decade.

Your mission

As an early – mid level Software Engineer on the Flight Software Team, you are responsible for all aspects the development of the software on the aircraft. You will interface with other engineers to develop and understand requirements, architect and writing high quality code, build tests and test infrastructure, documentation, and provide support through the software lifecycle. Part of your responsibility will be to lay the technological foundation for the aircraft software and supporting systems, including but not limited to implementing aircraft control functions on embedded systems, developing aircraft models and simulation tools, implementing critical fault tolerance mechanisms, and building hardware and software test systems. You will report to the Manager of Flight Software and collaborate with other engineers as part of a multi-functional team.

Key Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Design, develop, test, and maintain embedded software for safety-critical vehicle and industrial systems.
• Write reliable, maintainable code for embedded environments including microcontrollers, bare-metal systems, RTOS, and embedded operating systems.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with systems, hardware, flight sciences, and quality teams.
• Contribute to verification and validation activities including unit testing, integration testing, and system-level testing.
• Support simulation, modeling, and test activities.
• Document designs, requirements, and test results clearly and effectively.

You'll Bring These Qualifications as a Software Engineer I:

• 0–2 years of professional experience (internships, co-ops, academic project work) in structural design, aerospace engineering, or a related field.
• Writing production-quality code in systems languages such as Rust, C, C++, or Python.
• Develop embedded software under close mentorship and guidance.
• Learn safety-critical development processes and certification standards.
• Implement embedded software features with moderate guidance.
• Contribute to fault tolerance, fault mitigation strategies, unit tests, CI/CD pipelines, integration testing, well-defined features, test development, and documentation.
• Participate in system modeling and simulation efforts.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills in English.

You'll Bring These Qualifications as a Software Engineer II:

• 2+ years of professional industry experience.
• Writing production-quality code in systems languages such as Rust, C, C++, or Python.
• Own medium-complexity features and subsystems end-to-end.
• Apply strong systems design fundamentals to embedded software architecture.
• Contribute to fault tolerance, fault mitigation strategies, unit tests, CI/CD pipelines, integration testing, well-defined features, test development, and documentation.
• Actively participate in design reviews and cross-discipline technical discussions.
• Establish well-defined features, test development, and documentation.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills in English.

Education:

• Obtaining and/or obtained a minimum Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related engineering discipline

These Qualifications Would Be Nice to Have:

• Passion for aircraft, vehicles, and the company mission.
• Experience with embedded execution environments (microcontrollers, bare metal, RTOS, embedded OS).
• Experience modeling cyber-physical systems (e.g., 6-DoF simulators, Monte Carlo simulations, battery pack models).
• Experience with software and hardware test development: Unit tests, CI/CD pipelines, integration testing, automated testing, fuzzing, data collection, and report generation.
• Support development under functional safety–compliant processes (e.g., DO-178C, ISO 26262, IEC 61508).

Base Pay Range:

• Software Engineer I: $119,000—$149,000 USD.
• Software Engineer II: $137,000—$171,000 USD.