Work Location: Chantilly, Virginia or Seal Beach, California (on-site at either location)
Travel: Occasional travel to program integration and test locations
Clearance:Active TS/SCI with a current Polygraph RequiredU.S. Citizen requiredPosition OverviewOMNI Consulting Solutions is seeking a Satellite Flight Software Engineer to provide Systems Engineering and Technical Assistance (SETA) support to a Government team delivering advanced national security space capabilities. The engineer will provide independent technical assessment and engineering support across the architecture, development, integration, verification, qualification, deployment, and operation of onboard spacecraft flight software and embedded systems.
This position requires hands-on embedded and flight-software expertise. It is not an enterprise IT, cloud, web-development, satellite-operations-only, ground-software-only, or general systems-engineering position. The selected candidate must possess the technical depth to evaluate contractor source code, FPGA logic, device drivers, hardware/software interfaces, test environments, anomalies, and mission risks.
Key Responsibilities- Provide independent SETA support to Government stakeholders overseeing spacecraft flight-software and embedded-system development, integration, qualification, and operations.
- Assess flight-software architectures, source code, FPGA implementations, device drivers, board-support packages, hardware abstraction layers, and hardware/software interfaces.
- Review software requirements, designs, interface-control documents, code-review findings, FPGA artifacts, build and release products, test plans, procedures, results, discrepancy reports, and verification evidence.
- Evaluate command and telemetry processing, mode and state management, timekeeping, data handling, autonomy, redundancy management, fault detection and recovery, and spacecraft safe-mode behavior.
- Assess spacecraft processors, microcontrollers, FPGAs, memory, sensors, actuators, payload electronics, communication buses, and radiation-mitigation approaches.
- Support HIL and other integrated test activities, technical reviews, test-readiness reviews, qualification and acceptance testing, and operational-readiness assessments.
- Investigate integration failures, flight-software defects, spacecraft anomalies, and mission events; assess root cause, corrective actions, regression testing, and closure evidence.
- Monitor contractor execution, interfaces, dependencies, technical performance, schedules, and risks; identify issues early and recommend practical mitigation actions.
- Prepare concise engineering assessments, risk evaluations, briefings, and decision-support products for Government program and mission leadership.
Core Technical Requirements - RequiredCandidates must demonstrate experience with the following:
- Real-time and bare-metal systems: Real-time operating systems (RTOS), embedded Linux, and bare-metal programming for spacecraft processors and microcontrollers. Relevant RTOS platforms may include VxWorks, RTEMS, FreeRTOS, or comparable environments.
- Microcontrollers and FPGAs: Integration of flight software with microcontrollers, processors, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), memory, sensors, actuators, payload electronics, and other spacecraft hardware.
- Device drivers and low-level interfaces: Development, integration, review, or troubleshooting of device drivers, board-support packages, interrupt handling, memory-mapped input/output, timing functions, and hardware abstraction layers.
- Hardware-in-the-loop testing: Planning, execution, or evaluation of hardware-in-the-loop (HIL), processor-in-the-loop, software-in-the-loop, testbed, and flat-sat testing and spacecraft hardware/software integration.
- Fault-tolerant systems: Fault detection, isolation, and recovery; redundancy management; watchdogs; safe modes; graceful degradation; error detection and correction; autonomy; and recovery from hardware or software faults.
- Radiation-tolerant design: Understanding of radiation effects on spacecraft electronics and software, including single-event effects, total ionizing dose considerations, memory protection, error detection and correction, memory scrubbing, fault containment, redundancy, and software-based mitigation strategies.
Required Languages and Engineering Tools- Hands-on proficiency with both C and C++ for embedded or real-time systems.
- Experience using or evaluating Rust for embedded, real-time, safety-critical, or mission-critical applications.
- Working capability with VHDL or Verilog sufficient to develop, integrate, review, or assess FPGA logic and hardware/software interfaces.
- Proficiency with Python for scripting, automation, test execution, data reduction, or engineering analysis.
- Hands-on experience with JTAG, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers, or comparable laboratory debugging and diagnostic equipment.
Required Space Standards and Protocols- Familiarity with SpaceWire architectures, interfaces, and data communications.
- Familiarity with MIL-STD-1553 avionics data buses and command/response communications.
- Experience with Controller Area Network (CAN bus) interfaces and embedded communications.
- Knowledge of Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems (CCSDS) telemetry and telecommand standards, packet structures, and spacecraft command-and-data-handling interfaces.
- Familiarity with applicable NASA or comparable flight-quality, software-assurance, workmanship, and safety standards, including NASA-STD-8739.8, Software Assurance and Software Safety Standard, and, when hardware interconnections are within scope, NASA-STD-8739.4, Workmanship Standard for Crimping, Interconnecting Cables, Harnesses, and Wiring.
Additional Required Qualifications- Active TS/SCI clearance with a current polygraph at the time of application.
- U.S. citizenship.
- Bachelor's degree and at least 9 years of relevant experience, or a master's degree and at least 7 years of relevant experience.
- Degree in Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a related STEM discipline.
- At least 4 years of direct experience designing, developing, integrating, verifying, testing, or technically assessing onboard spacecraft flight software or embedded software for satellite bus or payload systems.
- Strong understanding of flight-software architecture, requirements, interfaces, configuration management, build and release management, integration, verification, validation, and qualification testing.
- Ability to diagnose issues across processor, FPGA, firmware, device-driver, bus, subsystem, and payload boundaries and communicate defensible recommendations to technical and non-technical leaders.
Preferred Qualifications- Experience with NASA core Flight System/core Flight Executive (cFS/cFE) or comparable spacecraft flight-software frameworks.
- Experience supporting Intelligence Community, U.S. Space Force, Department of Defense, NASA, or other national security space programs.
- Experience supporting a Government program office or serving in a SETA role.
- Experience supporting launch, early-orbit, on-orbit operations, anomaly response, or mission-event investigations.
- Familiarity with model-based systems engineering, secure software development, software assurance, and DevSecOps practices for classified or mission-critical systems.
Work Environment- Full-time, on-site work in either Chantilly, Virginia or Seal Beach, California.
- Occasional travel to integration, test, or mission-support locations may be required.
- Collaboration with Government, contractor, hardware, firmware, software, integration-and-test, cybersecurity, and operations teams across the spacecraft lifecycle
Job Code (6.26.3)
