Senior Firmware Engineer

Albedo is making Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) mainstream, building the infrastructure to usher every satellite mission set into this new orbital domain. We build buses, integrated satellites, and turnkey missions for customers to thrive in VLEO, between 250 km - 400 km, where proximity compounds performance and drag self‑cleans debris. As part of the first 100 employees at Albedo, you will have a big impact on Albedo’s trajectory to proliferating VLEO — whether you’re advancing hardware to increase satellite longevity, scaling production for large constellations, building next‑gen flight and ground software to push performance, or enabling missions that matter for national security and our day‑to‑day life here on earth. How We Operate: Albedo takes a first‑principles approach — in space and in business. We move with speed, take calculated risks, and learn quickly. We use AI regularly to create leverage in every discipline across the company. We work in‑person at our Broomfield CO HQ to maximize team and company productivity. We work hard and with urgency to compound our first‑mover advantage. Who We’re Looking For: Builders who want to own outcomes, not tasks. Systems thinkers who balance precision with iteration while thinking about the big picture. Individuals who are energized by creating a category rather than competing in an existing one. You’ll join a team that has already proven what others said wasn’t feasible and is now scaling and upgrading our VLEO buses & payloads to serve mission sets across sensing, communications, and responsive operations. What You’ll Do: Develop bare‑metal firmware in C/C++ for MCU‑based avionics systems. Own MCU boot flows, startup behavior, interrupt handlers, and register‑level peripheral drivers. Bring up new hardware and debug board‑level issues using schematics, datasheets, scopes, multimeters, logic analyzers, and debuggers. Implement and validate communication protocols including UART, SPI, I²C, CAN, USB, Ethernet, and related interfaces. Work directly with FPGA/gateware engineers to read memory maps, build drivers, and debug cross‑boundary issues. Partner with flight software and controls teams to define deterministic FWFSW interfaces for real‑time systems. Build test hooks, automation, and documentation that make firmware easier to validate and integrate. Support spacecraft integration and test campaigns. Your Ideal Skills and Experience: 5–10 years of firmware engineering experience in embedded or real‑time systems. Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field. Strong C and C++ skills for memory‑constrained and performance‑sensitive systems. Bare‑metal firmware experience on microcontrollers. Experience with registers, boot flows, interrupts, peripheral drivers, and low‑level debugging. Experience with mainstream MCU families. Comfortable reading schematics and reasoning about signal paths, power rails, timing, and interface behavior. Hands‑on bench experience with oscilloscopes, multimeters, logic analyzers, and debug probes. Experience working with FPGA/gateware teams or register‑level memory maps. Experience defining and debugging HWSW or FWFSW interfaces. Strong Plus Motor control and field‑oriented control for brushless or CMG‑class motors. Real‑time control‑loop firmware and FWFSW protocol design. New‑hardware bring‑up and board‑level debug for avionics or high‑reliability systems. Rust. Python for test automation. Experience using AI tools in daily engineering work, including LLM assistants for code, review, debugging, documentation, and design. Albedo uses Claude Code extensively. Salary Range: $130,372 - $160,038 per year Compensation and Benefits for Full‑Time Roles: Health Insurance: 100% employee coverage & 75% dependent coverage Parental leave and childcare coverage Flexible vacation and sick time from day one 12 company holidays $100 monthly wellness benefit Relocation package if not based in Denver Additional Requirements: In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form upon hire. All persons hired will be required to be a U.S. citizen, a lawful permanent resident of the U.S., or protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Equal Opportunity Employer/Veterans/Disabled: Albedo is an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Relocation: Relocation support for this position is available US CITIZENSHIP IS REQUIRED #J-18808-Ljbffr