Telecom Software Engineer

With our groundbreaking satellite 5G constellation, OQ Technology is a global leader in satellite IoT connectivity and next-generation non-terrestrial network (NTN) services. As the first company to seamlessly integrate standardized cellular technology with satellites, OQ Technology is transforming how connected devices communicate beyond the reach of terrestrial networks.
Our technology enables secure, scalable connectivity for industries including Oil & Gas, Utilities, Mining, Agriculture, Maritime, Logistics, Transport, and Environmental Monitoring, helping organizations monitor and manage critical assets anywhere in the world. We are now extending this capability to 5G NR-NTN direct-to-device (D2D) services, connecting commercial smartphones and dedicated terminals directly to satellites.
As we continue to develop our 5G NR-NTN D2D missions, we are looking for an experienced Telecom Software Engineer to join our Telecom Team at our facility in Luxembourg, reporting to the Team Lead. You will develop, integrate and test the OQ 5G gNodeB protocol stack adapted to run onboard our satellites, working across 3GPP specification study, NTN adaptation of L2 and L3, C/C++ implementation, and porting to space-representative processing platforms. You will validate your work hands-on in our telecom lab against commercial smartphones and D2D terminals, and collaborate closely with a multi-disciplinary team spanning the 5G Core, user equipment, and the satellite payload.
Tasks
The tasks below are representative and not exhaustive. The Company may assign the post holder to other tasks where it considers this in its interests.
General and Teamwork
* Contribute to OQ's 5G NR-NTN D2D projects, delivering assigned tasks to the agreed schedule and quality.
* Carry out hands-on experiments in the Telecom Lab to test and validate new implementations and theoretical concepts.
* Take part in Telecom Team brainstorming sessions and technical discussions, and share relevant findings with the team.
* Report task progress and completion status to the Team Lead at regular intervals.
* Support colleagues on other project tasks and on hands-on troubleshooting.
* Take on additional work on the 3GPP NTN NB-IoT protocol stack, eNodeB and UE sides, including end-to-end and interoperability testing with third-party and commercial devices.
Technical
* Review mission and project documentation to understand scope, objectives and technical baseline, including statements of work, proposals, 3GPP discussion notes and progress reports.
* Study the NR-NTN direct-to-device problem across the use cases, protocol layers and procedures each mission depends on, including services such as SMS over NAS and emergency broadcast, the L2 and L3 adaptations NTN requires, TDD DL-UL pattern design, initial access and system information acquisition, and the effects of long propagation delay and Doppler shift on the link.
* Review the relevant 3GPP specifications to extract requirements, confirm compliance and identify technical constraints.
* Build working knowledge of the open-source gNodeB stack: code structure, software architecture, build, installation, configuration and execution.
* Port and adapt the stack to onboard processing environments, covering cross-compilation, embedded Linux targets, real-time performance, CPU and memory budgets, and interfaces to the FPGA/SDR physical layer.
* Develop new C/C++ code blocks from the preceding studies, and carry out unit, functional and end-to-end testing in the lab on representative hardware.
* Gain knowledge of the other system elements: the 5G Core Network (5GC), the UE (commercial smartphones or dedicated D2D terminals), and the satellite platform (onboard processing units, FPGA, SDR and RF front-end).
* Maintain continuous documentation of research, analysis, requirements, design, proposed solutions and evaluation results.
* Commit work to the project GitLab repositories under version control on a continuous basis.
* Raise concerns, open questions, risks and critical issues with the team as soon as they are identified.
Requirements
Essential
* MSc or equivalent in telecommunications, electronic, embedded systems or computer engineering, or a related discipline.
* Minimum five years of professional software development experience in telecoms or embedded systems.
* Commercial experience in modern C++ (C++17 or later) on Linux, in a real-time or embedded context, including multithreaded and latency-sensitive code.
* CMake-based build systems.
* Working knowledge of 5G NR Higher L1 and L2 (MAC, RLC, PDCP, RRC) and of the cell search, system information and random-access procedures.
* Ability to read 3GPP specifications and translate them into design and code.
* Automated unit and integration testing with GoogleTest/GoogleMock or Catch2, run through CTest within GitLab CI, with JUnit XML test reports and code coverage (gcov, lcov or gcovr) published to merge requests.
* GitLab workflows: merge requests, code review, and CI/CD pipelines using containerised (Docker) build and test runners.
* Debugging and runtime analysis with GDB and sanitisers (AddressSanitizer, ThreadSanitizer, UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer).
* Protocol and log analysis using Wireshark and UE or terminal diagnostic tools.
* Professional written and spoken English.
Desirable
* Experience with open-source RAN stacks (for example srsRAN or OpenAirInterface).
* Familiarity with 3GPP Release 17 and later NTN features.
* MAC scheduler, carrier aggregation or TDD pattern design experience.
* Embedded Linux build systems (Yocto, Buildroot) and cross-compilation for ARM targets.
* Static analysis tools (clang-tidy, cppcheck) and performance profiling (perf, Valgrind).
* SDR platforms (for example USRP) and FPGA-to-software PHY interfaces.
* Understanding of satellite systems and orbital effects on the radio link.
* Exposure to ECSS software standards (ECSS-E-ST-40C, ECSS-Q-ST-80C).
* NB-IoT or NB-IoT NTN protocol experience.
* Integration and verification, field testing or interoperability testing with commercial smartphones or dedicated D2D terminals.
* Python for test automation (for example pytest).
Additional Information
As part of the recruitment process, candidates may be required to provide a criminal record certificate issued within the last three (3) months.
Benefits
* Enjoy a 50% income tax exemption on your salary - an exceptional incentive for top talent relocating to Luxembourg, subject to eligibility conditions.
* Flexibility to work remotely one day per week.
* Opportunity to work on flagship EU space mission projects.
* A dynamic, high-growth environment with career development opportunities.
* Regular company events and team activities.