About Aetherflux
Aetherflux is solving the global energy crisis by building the infrastructure for abundant, resilient, and continuous space-based solar energy. We are tackling humanity’s most complex engineering challenge with a world-class team dedicated to delivering a revolutionary power platform. Aetherflux is transforming how civilization powers, computes, and connects—from orbit to Earth.
Distributed Systems Software Engineering Lead
The Distributed Systems Software Engineering Lead at Aetherflux will lead a software team in developing and maintaining real-time constellation management and compute tasking architecture. This role is responsible for the overall quality, reliability, and fault tolerance of the ground systems software infrastructure across satellite control, power beaming operations, compute cloud management, and ground receiver systems. You will grow and manage and mentor a team of software engineers to establish development standards, conduct architecture and code reviews, and ensure robust software practices that support Aetherflux's space-based power transmission and orbital compute platforms.
Responsibilities
Team Lead: Lead ground software team developing mission-critical constellation and compute management software stack through mentorship, performance management, and career development.
Project Management: Plan and coordinate code releases, including task breakdowns, sprint management, timeline tracking, and communication to program stakeholders.
Architecture: Design and lead distributed systems for fault-tolerant and high-performance operations for mission-critical operations.
Cloud and Orbita Cloud Infrastructure: Lead, design, and development of real-time scheduling systems, data pipelines, collision avoidance systems, and high-performance compute services.
Testing & Simulation: Work with hardware and test teams to build software-in-the-loop (SITL) and hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) environments for software validation of on orbit maneuvers and constellation health.
Basic Qualifications
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
2+ years of experience as a software development lead
5+ years of experience as an distributed systems software engineer, particularly for aerospace or satellite applications.
Proficiency in Python, C, C++, and/or Rust.
Experience with building cloud infrastructure.
Knowledge of Linux-based (embedded) systems.
Strong knowledge of networking stacks, data pipelines, and databases
Strong problem-solving skills and ability to work in a fast-paced environment.
Preferred Qualifications
5+ years of experience as the lead of a distributed services development team, particularly for aerospace or satellite applications
Experience with constellation management and orbital tasking and simulation
High-performance compute system deployment experience
Familiarity with satellite communication protocols and telemetry processing.
Top Skills
What We Do
Aetherflux's mission is to deliver energy to planet Earth. Our work will make energy more accessible, establish American energy independence, power underdeveloped and disaster-stricken areas, and protect American warfighters. Aetherflux is building a modern approach to space-based solar power. Our constellation of satellites will collect sunlight in Low Earth Orbit, convert it to electricity, and transmit power through infrared lasers to ground stations, providing reliable energy access where traditional delivery is expensive, challenging, or dangerous. Current energy systems rely on complex logistics and outdated infrastructure, making them vulnerable to natural disasters, extreme weather, and physical and cyber attacks. Aetherflux overcomes these challenges by enabling direct, on-demand, secure, and scalable 24-hour energy distribution from space. This can revolutionize energy generation and delivery, and enable new capabilities as we deliver power to remote regions, military bases, bespoke operations, and unmanned autonomous systems. Baiju Bhatt, who also co-founded Robinhood, founded Aetherflux in 2024. Inspired by his father’s career at NASA, Baiju earned his B.S. in Physics and M.S. in Mathematics at Stanford before starting Robinhood, now a public company that has helped over 20 million Americans access the financial system. Aetherflux is currently self-funded through a $10 million investment from Baiju. This is an ambitious mission that demands extraordinary talent. Aetherflux’s team has worked at places like Robinhood, SpaceX, NASA, Anduril, and the U.S. Navy, and is based in San Carlos, California. If you're ready to solve complex technical challenges and help build the most important energy company in the world, we want to hear from you.
