The Role
Develop and integrate real-time embedded flight software for aerospace avionics and flight computers. Translate hardware and system requirements into reliable, testable software; debug hardware/software interfaces; and build automated unit, integration, and HIL testing. Support fault handling, verification, configuration management, and flight readiness while helping establish embedded architecture and engineering processes. Collaborate with avionics, GNC, propulsion, test, QA, and ground software teams, with opportunities for future technical and people leadership.
Summary Generated by Built In
Who We Are:
Venus Aerospace is revolutionizing rocket engine propulsion. With the first generational leap in rocket engine technology since Apollo, our proprietary Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine and Venus Detonation Ramjets deliver historic efficiency and performance across aerospace applications. We are building the next generation of propulsion platforms that enable breakthrough capabilities in space, defense, and commercial high-speed flight. Our team thrives on solving the toughest engineering challenges and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in aerospace. At Venus, we’re looking for bold engineers and innovators who want to make history and redefine the future of propulsion.
Venus Aerospace is revolutionizing rocket engine propulsion. With the first generational leap in rocket engine technology since Apollo, our proprietary Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine and Venus Detonation Ramjets deliver historic efficiency and performance across aerospace applications. We are building the next generation of propulsion platforms that enable breakthrough capabilities in space, defense, and commercial high-speed flight. Our team thrives on solving the toughest engineering challenges and pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in aerospace. At Venus, we’re looking for bold engineers and innovators who want to make history and redefine the future of propulsion.
The Role: Embedded Software Engineer
We are seeking a talented Embedded Software Engineer to help develop the flight software that powers our next-generation avionics and flight computer systems. You’ll join a small, multidisciplinary Software team that currently spans embedded systems, ground software, hardware test and data acquisition, HIL/V&V, and internal enterprise software. As an early member of our growing Embedded Software team, you’ll have significant ownership in shaping the architecture, processes, and technical direction of this area. As the company grows, this role offers the opportunity to take on technical and people leadership and help build out the Embedded Software organization.
We are seeking a talented Embedded Software Engineer to help develop the flight software that powers our next-generation avionics and flight computer systems. You’ll join a small, multidisciplinary Software team that currently spans embedded systems, ground software, hardware test and data acquisition, HIL/V&V, and internal enterprise software. As an early member of our growing Embedded Software team, you’ll have significant ownership in shaping the architecture, processes, and technical direction of this area. As the company grows, this role offers the opportunity to take on technical and people leadership and help build out the Embedded Software organization.
What You'll Get To Do
- Develop Flight Software
- Design, implement, and integrate real-time embedded software for our flight computers and avionics systems.
- Translate system and hardware requirements into robust, maintainable, and testable software.
- Work across the hardware/software boundary to bring up, debug, and integrate embedded systems.
- Develop software with the rigor required for mission-critical aerospace systems, including fault handling, verification, and configuration management.
- Develop automated unit, integration, and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing to verify flight software.
- Collaborate with Avionics, GNC, Test, Ground Software, and QA engineers to identify and solve complex system-level problems.
- Help establish our embedded software architecture, development processes, tools, and engineering practices.
- Take ownership of projects from initial concept through implementation, integration, and flight readiness.
- Grow with the company and, as the team expands, have the opportunity to mentor engineers and lead the Embedded Software organization.
Build for Reliability:
Shape the Embedded Team:
What You Have
- Software engineer with 5+ years’ experience developing embedded systems for flight-related systems.
- Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related engineering discipline. Advanced degree a plus. Equivalent professional experience may be considered.
- Strong proficiency in C and/or C++ for resource-constrained embedded systems.
- Experience developing software for microcontrollers, SoCs, or embedded CPUs.
- Strong understanding of embedded concepts:
- Interrupts and interrupt handling
- DMA peripherals
- Memory-mapped I/O
- Timers and watchdogs
- Serial communication interfaces
- Concurrency and synchronization
- Memory management and resource constraints
- Ability to read schematics, datasheets, reference manuals, and hardware specifications and translate them into software requirements.
- Experience developing real-time embedded software with deterministic timing requirements
- Familiarity with RTOS concepts, such as scheduling, priorities, synchronization, inter-task communication, and timing analysis.
- Understanding of latency, jitter, deadline misses, and failure modes in real-time systems.
- Experience reasoning about system behavior when multiple asynchronous events occur simultaneously.
- Experience developing software where correctness, reliability, and fault handling are critical.
- Experience with:
- Fault detection and handling
- Redundancy or graceful degradation
- Watchdogs and health monitoring
- Startup/self-test behavior
- Robust state-machine design
- Safe handling of unexpected inputs and hardware faults
- Understanding of the difference between nominal behavior and behavior during degraded or failed hardware/software conditions.
- Experience with Weapons Open Systems Architecture (WOSA) and Modular Open Systems Approach (MOSA).
- Experience writing unit & integration tests
- Ability to create test cases from software requirements.
- Familiarity with code coverage and other objective measures of verification.
- Ability to diagnose problems spanning the SW/HW boundary.
- Good candidates should be comfortable with:
- GIT and modern code-review workflows
- CI/CD for embedded systems
- Static analysis and compiler diagnostics
- Automated regression testing
- Requirements tracking and traceability
- Issue tracking and defect analysis
- Peer reviews of both code and design
- Writing clear technical documentation
- Collaborate closely with Avionics, GNC, Propulsion, Test, and Ground Software engineers
- Translate system-level requirements into software architecture and implementation
- Understand interfaces between flight software and sensors, actuators, communications systems, and other onboard computers.
- Participate in system architecture and interface definition
- Diagnose problems that may originate in hardware, firmware, software, configuration, or integration.
Experience-Level:
Embedded Software Fundamentals:
Real-time Systems:
Safety/Reliability-Critical Aerospace Software:
Verification and Testing:
Software Engineering Practices:
Systems-Level Thinking:
What Will Set You Apart
- Experience developing or integrating embedded software within modular weapons, missiles, avionics, or other mission-critical architecture.
- Familiarity with defensive programming and failure containment.
- Experience interfacing/developing code for FPGAs
- MIL-STD-1553, RS-422, and RS-485 experience
- Experience with compliance to DO-178C or MIL-STD-882E standards
- Thrust Vector Control (TVC) experience
- Experience working with Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs)
- Experience working with Global Positioning System (GPS) chips
- SpaceWire / Time-Triggered Ethernet experience
- Experience with Model-in-the-Loop (MIL), Software-in-the-Loop (SIL), and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) testing environments and best practices
- Experience debugging software using: JTAG/SWD or equivalent debugging interfaces, Logic Analyzers, Oscilloscopes, Serial/Network interfaces, Embedded tracing/logging tools
- DAQ fundamentals for voltage, current, and temperature measurements
- Experience developing automated test infrastructure.
- Experience with GitLab pipelines, Atlassian tools (Jira, Confluence), or systems engineering practices.
- Experience working in a development environment where changes need to be reviewable, reproducible, and traceable.
Location: On-site in Houston, TX
Benefits: Venus Aerospace employee benefits include a 401(k) plan, stock options, and medical benefits, including dental and vision. We have a flex-Friday flexible schedule, unlimited PTO, and receive professional development opportunities.
ITAR Requirements
This position involves access to technology that is subject to U.S. export controls. Any job offer made will be contingent upon the applicant’s capacity to serve in compliance with U.S. export controls. To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be able to meet ITAR requirements (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). You can learn more about ITAR here.
Venus Aerospace is an Equal Opportunity Employer including Disabled/Veterans. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability. If you have a disability and believe you need a reasonable accommodation, please email [email protected] or call (281) 203-0027.This email and phone number were created exclusively to assist job seekers whose disability prevents them from being able to apply online. Messages or any other purposes, such as following up on an application, third party staffing agencies, website technical issues, or any other issues not related to a disability, will not receive a response. Messages will be returned within five business days.
For additional information about our Equal Opportunity Employment Policy, please visit our EEOP page.
Skills Required
- 5+ years of experience developing embedded systems for flight-related systems
- Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related engineering discipline
- Strong proficiency in C and/or C++ for resource-constrained embedded systems
- Experience developing software for microcontrollers, SoCs, or embedded CPUs
- Understanding of embedded concepts including interrupts, DMA, memory-mapped I/O, timers, watchdogs, serial interfaces, concurrency, synchronization, and memory management
- Experience developing deterministic real-time embedded software and familiarity with RTOS concepts
- Experience developing software where correctness, reliability, and fault handling are critical
- Experience with fault handling, redundancy or graceful degradation, health monitoring, startup/self-test behavior, state-machine design, and hardware/software fault handling
- Experience with Weapons Open Systems Architecture and Modular Open Systems Approach
- Experience writing unit and integration tests and creating test cases from software requirements
- Ability to diagnose problems across the hardware/software boundary
- Familiarity with code coverage and objective verification measures
- Experience with Git, code review workflows, CI/CD, static analysis, automated regression testing, requirements traceability, issue tracking, and technical documentation
- Ability to translate system-level requirements into software architecture and implementation
- Experience developing or integrating embedded software within modular weapons, missiles, avionics, or other mission-critical architectures
- Experience interfacing with or developing code for FPGAs
- Experience with MIL-STD-1553, RS-422, and RS-485
- Experience with DO-178C or MIL-STD-882E compliance
- Thrust Vector Control, IMU, GPS chip, SpaceWire, or Time-Triggered Ethernet experience
- Experience with MIL, SIL, and HIL testing environments
- Experience debugging with JTAG/SWD, logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, serial/network interfaces, or embedded tracing tools
- DAQ fundamentals for voltage, current, and temperature measurements
- Experience developing automated test infrastructure
- Experience with GitLab pipelines, Jira, Confluence, or systems engineering practices
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The Company
What We Do
Venus Aerospace is developing reusable hypersonic technology that will revolutionize and redefine the boundaries of aviation, defense, and beyond.
