Spacecraft Software Engineer

Salary: £50,000 - 65,000 per year

Requirements

• We need 4+ years of embedded C experience on ARM, ideally bare-metal or close to bare-metal.
• We need 2+ years leading, mentoring, or technically guiding a small software team.
• We need experience with embedded release engineering, including bootloaders, secure boot, signed firmware, A/B rollback, anti-rollback, configuration control, and release gates.
• We need experience with Git-based review workflows and disciplined software configuration management.
• We need experience with CI/CD for embedded systems, including unit tests, integration tests, hardware-in-the-loop tests, and Python-based test harnesses.
• We need experience with requirements traceability, coding standards, MISRA or equivalent static analysis, and strong review discipline.
• We need experience with TT&C, CCSDS, packet protocols, command handling, telemetry handling, and spacecraft configuration discipline.
• We need experience with FDIR architecture, fault injection, watchdogs, safe modes, degraded modes, and robust autonomous behaviour.
• We need experience with sensor, actuator, ADCS, or payload bring-up.
• We need experience with on-target debugging using JTAG/SWD, telemetry, logs, oscilloscopes, logic analysers, or similar tools.
• We need experience with automated commissioning, observability, and operational tooling.
• We need to work on-site at our satellite facility near Reading/Oxfordshire several days per week.
• We need the ability to commute to or relocate to Goring RG8 9AQ before starting work.

Responsibilities

• We write software that operates real spacecraft.
• We work across embedded flight code, bootloaders, secure updates, TT&C, ADCS bring-up, sensor and actuator integration, in-orbit commissioning, FDIR, observability, test automation, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and operational tooling.
• We may lead a small flight-software team and act as release authority.
• We help set the standard for how we build, test, release, update, recover, and operate spacecraft software.
• We work closely with AIT, avionics, RF, ADCS, payload, ground-segment, and operations teams to get spacecraft commissioned, stable, resilient, and productive in orbit.
• We work on customer missions, hosted payload missions, constellation missions, and our own internal constellation programmes.
• We take responsibility, move fast without becoming careless, raise standards, and make the people around us better.
• We own real systems and solve difficult technical problems close to hardware.

Technologies

• ARM
• CI/CD
• Embedded
• Firmware
• Git
• Hardware
• Python
• C++
• FPGA
• Security

More

We are OrbAstro, a deeply vertically integrated satellite company that designs and builds spacecraft, subsystems, flight software, ground systems, and operational infrastructure in-house. We already have a dozen satellites in orbit and an 18,000 sq ft satellite facility in the UK, and we are scaling for constellation build-outs while expanding from 30 kg-class satellites to 500 kg-class platforms. We offer a high-ownership, high-trust, high-tempo environment with real spacecraft, real responsibility, and fast feedback loops. The role is based on-site at our facility near Reading/Oxfordshire several days per week, with some remote focused software work possible. We offer a salary of £50,000 to £65,000, company equity in share options of 0.2%-0.4%, no fixed limit on paid annual leave, matched pension contributions up to 10%, company life insurance, professional development and wellness budgets, free on-site lunch, and visa sponsorship for top talent.

last updated 27 week of 2026