Staff Flight Software Engineer, Arc Vehicle

Position Overview:

As a Staff Flight Software Engineer at Inversion, you will report directly to the Engineering Manager of Arc Vehicle Software. In this role, you will be a principal software architect and technical authority for the flight software running on our next-generation Arc hypersonic reentry vehicle. You will own the flight software architecture end-to-end, solving unprecedented technical challenges at the intersection of embedded hardware, safety-critical control loops, and autonomous flight state machines.

Key Responsibilities:

• Architect, write, and maintain high-reliability, fault-tolerant flight software in for the Arc vehicle.
• Own the software architecture for critical vehicle state transitions, fault-management, power conservation, and autonomous mission execution.
• Lead the integration and optimization of complex multi-rate Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) algorithms from the Reentry and Accurate Landing teams into the core C++ flight software loop.
• Establish company-wide embedded C++ development standards, coding guidelines, and software architectural patterns.
• Drive hardware-software boundary definition, board bring-up, and low-level debugging on target flight computer processors.
• Design and lead the development of highly automated Software-in-the-Loop (SIL) and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) test suites to achieve robust code coverage.
• Mentor senior and mid-level software engineers, fostering a culture of rigorous software engineering and technical excellence.
• Collaborate with cross-functional system architects to define telemetry formats, communication protocols, and hardware interface controls.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or equivalent technical experience.
• Typically 9+ years of professional experience developing embedded, real-time, or safety-critical software.
• Expertise in systems programming languages (C / C++ / Rust) in a Linux-based development environment.
• Deep understanding of embedded Linux, deterministic software execution, multi-threading, and memory management in resource-constrained environments.
• Proven track record of architecting and deploying flight software or high-reliability autonomous software on hardware that has successfully operated in flight or harsh environments.
• Strong background in low-level drivers, networking, and hardware interface protocols (such as CAN, Ethernet, SPI, UART, or RS-422).
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with a proven ability to lead complex software design reviews.
• Must have the ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government Secret/Top Secret security clearance.

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience developing flight software for spacecraft, launch vehicles, or safety-critical autonomous aerospace platforms.
• Familiarity with physical system modeling, 6DOF simulations, or GNC algorithm execution.
• Extensive experience with modern CI/CD systems, software test automation, and embedded compiler toolchains.
• Prior experience in a fast-paced aerospace startup.

Our office headquarters is located in Playa Vista, CA. This position requires in office presence.

The California annual base salary for this role is currently $165,000 - $236,000. Pay Grades are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual pay will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: interviews and an assessment of several factors that are unique to each candidate, job-related skills, relevant education and experience, certifications, abilities of the candidate and internal equity.