Embedded Software Engineer III (Goleta)

Who We Are

LaunchPoint Electric Propulsion Solutions, Inc. is an aerospace power generation and electric propulsion design company that is committed to hiring the very best people to join our team. We are passionately focused on designing and manufacturing the best motor and controller solutions for aerospace, thermal management, power generation, and defense. We specialize in gensets, motors and controllers to enable efficient, power dense, reliable, lightweight hybrid-electric and full-electric propulsion solutions.

Come join us in a rare opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a product destined to impact aerospace and advanced air mobility.

Embedded Software Engineer III

LaunchPoint EPS is seeking a talented Embedded Software Engineer to join our engineering team and build the next generation of embedded software for our motor controller and power generation product line. Our products provide propulsion and power for hybrid commercial and military unmanned aircraft, jet engine starter generators, and ram air turbine generators.

This is a hands-on development role at the center of a new software platform, built on a strong foundation: our products fly today on a mature, field-proven codebase, and the new platform carries its control, protection, and communications functions forward. You will develop it from its early stages, own your modules end to end, and manage your own day-to-day work. The software architecture is defined in collaboration with our systems engineering lead, with room to take on as much of it as you show you can carry. You will not be working alone: electrical and systems engineers with software experience support the effort and review alongside you, and the products shipping today are maintained by the rest of the team, leaving you focused on the new platform.

The position is on-site at our Goleta, California facility, with lab and field work, occasional travel for customer support, and flexibility for some hybrid time when the work is appropriate and with prior management approval.

What You’ll Do

• Develop the new modular embedded software platform for our next generation of motor controllers and generator control electronics, drawing on proven code from our existing products
• Own your modules from detailed design through implementation, hardware bring-up, and verification
• Design and implement bare-metal, hard real-time control software, including register-level peripheral drivers, inner control loops, machine protection, and safe power sequencing
• Contribute to the software architecture: module boundaries, interfaces, and configuration strategy
• Bring up new controller hardware and electric machines using a staged commissioning approach, and support the engineers who tune the control loops
• Develop and maintain host and platform interfaces, including interface control documents, parameter and telemetry maps, data logging, and non-volatile storage
• Follow and help improve development practices that support certification to standards such as DO-178C: coding standards, design and code reviews, configuration management, and requirements traceability
• Write software requirements, specifications, and test procedures, and verify your work against them
• Support environmental and EMI/EMC qualification testing, production, and field service

What You Need

We value depth in real-time embedded software over experience in our specific domain. Candidates from adjacent fields such as electronic warfare, avionics, industrial control, or automotive are encouraged to apply if the fundamentals below are strong.

• BS degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field with 4+ years of embedded software development experience
• Strong C programming on 32-bit microcontrollers in bare-metal or small-RTOS environments, working directly with registers and peripheral reference manuals
• Experience designing interrupt-driven software with hard real-time requirements
• Ability to take a module from specification through design, implementation, and test on real hardware with minimal supervision
• Hands-on lab skills with oscilloscopes and JTAG debuggers, and enough schematic literacy to tell a software fault from a hardware one
• Experience writing requirements, specifications, or test procedures, and verifying work against them
• Familiarity with the development practices used for high-reliability or certifiable software, such as coding standards, design reviews, configuration management, and traceability

Highly Desirable Competencies

• Experience owning or defining embedded software architecture
• TI C2000 (C28x) experience
• Field-oriented control of permanent magnet machines and control loop tuning
• CAN and serial communications, including interface control documents
• Power conversion software: inverters, DC bus regulation, battery management, or high voltage systems
• DO-178C or similar certification experience, MISRA C, static analysis, or hardware-in-the-loop testing
• FPGA or CPLD development in VHDL or Verilog
• Engine control, genset, or power generation systems experience
• Model-based design in MATLAB/Simulink

Salary and Pay Transparency

Salary range for this position is between $130,000 and $180,000. Base pay is dependent upon many factors, such as: training, transferable skills, work experience, education, business needs and market demands. The base pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. This role may also be eligible for bonus, equity, and all applicable company benefits.

The salary range and/or hourly pay rate listed is a good faith determination of potential base compensation that may be offered to a successful applicant for this position at the time of this job posting and may be modified in the future.

Benefits

We value our employees’ time and efforts. Our commitment to your success is enhanced by our competitive compensation and an extensive benefits package including paid time off, medical, dental and vision benefits and future growth opportunities within the company. Plus, we work to maintain the best possible environment.

LaunchPoint is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusivity in the workplace. All aspects of employment are decided on the base of merit, qualifications, and business needs. We do not discriminate based upon race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, gender identity or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

This position must meet Export Control compliance requirements, therefore a “US Person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15 is required. “US Person” includes US Citizen, lawful permanent resident, refugee, or asylee.