Flight Firmware Engineer

Matter Intelligence

$120K — $145K *
Aerospace & Defense
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Experience developing and debugging embedded software close to hardware.
  • Strong understanding of processors, peripherals, communication interfaces, timing, memory, and real-time behavior.
  • Hands-on experience with board bring-up, laboratory debugging, automated testing, and version-controlled software development.
  • Ability to work across firmware, electronics, flight software, systems engineering, and test disciplines.
  • (Preferred) Experience with aerospace, avionics, robotics, or mission-critical embedded systems.
  • (Preferred) Experience in real-time operating environments and high-throughput sensor data paths.

Responsibilities

  • Develop and maintain embedded firmware and device drivers for sensing payload electronics.
  • Support board bring-up and integration of peripherals and telemetry paths.
  • Translate system requirements into verifiable firmware behaviors and interfaces.
  • Build unit, integration, and hardware-in-the-loop tests; support flight qualification activities.
  • Diagnose issues using logs and instrumentation; document root causes and corrective actions.

Benefits

  • Competitive compensation based on experience.
  • Early-stage equity package.
  • 100% employer-paid health, dental, and vision coverage.
  • Opportunity to work on innovative sensing, data, and AI systems with real-world applications.
Full Job Description
About the Role

Matter is hiring a Flight Firmware Engineer to develop the low-level software that connects our sensing hardware to reliable airborne and spaceborne operations. This role will work closely with payload electronics, flight software, systems, test, and operations through board bring-up, integration, qualification, and flight.
Key Responsibilities
  • Develop and maintain embedded firmware, device drivers, and hardware-control interfaces for sensing payload electronics.
  • Support board bring-up, peripheral integration, command and telemetry paths, timing, and fault handling.
  • Translate system and hardware requirements into testable firmware behavior and clear interfaces with flight software.
  • Build unit, integration, and hardware-in-the-loop tests and support environmental and flight qualification activities.
  • Diagnose issues using logs, instrumentation, and test data; document root causes and implement reliable corrective actions.
Qualifications
Required
  • Experience developing and debugging embedded software close to hardware.
  • Strong understanding of processors, peripherals, communication interfaces, timing, memory, and real-time behavior.
  • Hands-on experience with board bring-up, laboratory debugging, automated testing, and version-controlled software development.
  • Ability to work across firmware, electronics, flight software, systems engineering, and test disciplines.
Preferred
  • Experience with aerospace, avionics, robotics, sensing, or other mission-critical embedded systems.
  • Experience with real-time operating environments, programmable logic interfaces, or high-throughput sensor data paths.
  • Familiarity with environmental qualification, fault-tolerant design, and flight anomaly response.
What Success Looks Like
  • Firmware provides stable, observable control of payload hardware through integration and qualification.
  • Interfaces with electronics and flight software are documented, tested, and resilient to expected faults.
  • Hardware issues are diagnosed quickly and firmware releases are traceable and ready for flight operations.
Location

This role is based in El Segundo, CA, and requires onsite work.
ITAR Requirements

To comply with U.S. export regulations, applicants must be one of the following:
  • A U.S. citizen or national
  • A lawful permanent resident (green card holder)
  • Eligible to obtain required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State
Employee Offerings and Benefits

At Matter, we believe in rewarding high performance and providing the support you need to thrive. Our compensation and benefits package includes:
  • Competitive compensation based on experience
  • Early-stage equity package
  • 100% employer-paid health, dental, and vision coverage
  • Opportunity to work on novel sensing, data, and AI systems with real-world deployment paths to the largest industries in the world

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