Principal Software Engineer

ABOUT Firefly Aerospace is a space and defense technology company on a mission to reliably and repeatedly launch, land, and operate space systems from Earth to the Moon and beyond. As the partner of choice for critical space missions, Firefly is the first commercial company to launch a satellite to orbit with 24-hour notice and the first company to achieve a successful Moon landing. Headquartered in north Austin, Texas, Firefly is looking for passionate, hardworking innovators to join our team and help fuel our successful trajectory into space. SUMMARY Our computer vision system that landed on the moon combines a flexible, multi-camera hardware architecture with onboard perception, navigation, and state estimation. Firefly is seeking a Principle Software Engineer to lead the development of critical features across the stack. In this role, you will build the systems, libraries, tools, and interfaces that connect perception algorithms with cameras, compute hardware, simulation environments, flight software, and mission operations. You will work at the intersection of modern software engineering, 3D computing, embedded systems, and spacecraft operations to create a reliable, reusable platform capable of supporting missions beyond the laboratory—and beyond Earth. The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in one or more of these areas, an interest in expanding into the others, and an appetite for solving complex problems where software, hardware, and mission requirements meet. This position may be based onsite at Firefly Aerospace’s facilities in Austin, Texas, or Littleton, Colorado. Fully remote candidates may also be considered, provided they can travel to Austin for approximately one week every other month—up to six weeks annually to support Assembly, Integration & Test (AI&T) activities and mission operations. Additional travel may occasionally be required based on program needs RESPONSIBILITIES Lead the design, development, integration, and testing of critical features within our software stack Build reusable C++ and Python libraries, APIs, tools, and abstractions connecting perception algorithms with cameras, compute hardware, simulation, flight software, and mission operations Define maintainable interfaces between algorithmic and platform components across a large, production-quality codebase Develop and optimize multithreaded, low-latency software for compute-, memory-, and bandwidth-constrained environments Integrate cameras, sensors, heterogeneous compute platforms, and networking interfaces into reliable end-to-end systems Develop software involving 3D geometry, coordinate transformations, camera models, spatial data, visualization, simulation, or reconstruction Establish automated testing, build infrastructure, simulation tools, and developer workflows that improve reliability and engineering velocity Partner with perception, GNC, avionics, flight software, systems engineering, and mission operations teams to ensure cohesive system behavior Support software-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop, spacecraft integration, mission simulation, and flight operations activities Diagnose complex system-level issues, contribute to architectural decisions, conduct technical reviews, and mentor other engineers QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Robotics, or a related technical field; equivalent practical experience may be considered 10+ years of professional software engineering experience developing complex production systems Strong proficiency in modern C++, including multithreading, memory management, debugging, and performance optimization Experience designing reusable libraries, APIs, platform services, or software abstractions used across engineering teams Experience developing and debugging software in Linux environments and integrating software with hardware, sensors, networking interfaces, or external systems Strong understanding of software architecture, algorithms, automated testing, and maintainable software design Demonstrated ability to resolve complex system-level issues and communicate effectively across software, algorithm, hardware, and systems engineering teams PREFERRED Master’s or PhD in Computer Science, Robotics, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field Experience developing software for spacecraft, aerospace, robotics, autonomous vehicles, defense systems, or other mission-critical applications Proficiency in Python for tooling, automation, testing, simulation, or data analysis Experience with 3D geometry, coordinate transformations, camera models, spatial data structures, visualization, simulation, or reconstruction Experience integrating cameras or perception sensors with embedded Linux, GPUs, FPGAs, or other heterogeneous compute platforms Familiarity with computer vision, visual navigation, state estimation, localization, mapping, or perception pipelines Experience with flight software interfaces, telemetry and commanding, software- or hardware-in-the-loop testing, vehicle integration, or mission operations Firefly offers outstanding benefits for our employees, including generous health, dental and vision plans with low plan deductibles, parental leave, educational reimbursement, short term disability, and flexible PTO options. To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., 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. Firefly Aerospace, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Firefly is governed based on merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status #J-18808-Ljbffr