Senior Flight Software Engineer

About Capella

Capella, an IonQ company, spans national security, advanced sensing, and next-generation compute to deliver secure, mission-ready intelligence. Capella’s culture is built on collaboration, rigorous engineering, and a shared commitment to delivering solutions that strengthen global stability and security. Team members work side-by-side with some of the most innovative minds in space systems, quantum-enabled technologies, and mission-critical operations.

Capella values curiosity, resilience, and a willingness to tackle hard problems with precision and creativity. Capella welcomes and encourages applicants whose perspectives are historically underrepresented in technology, national security, and aerospace. No prior space experience is required. Diverse viewpoints strengthen Capella’s ability to innovate and deliver meaningful impact for partners worldwide.

Location: This role can be based at our Louisville, CO or San Francisco office with the option to work a few days a week remotely.

Experience Level: Open to strong mid-level through senior-level embedded software engineers (5+ years).
Travel: Up to 5%

Job ID: 1729

The Role

Capella Space now part of IonQ’s space business operates one of the world’s most capable commercial synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite constellations, delivering all-weather, day-and-night imagery to government and commercial customers around the globe. As IonQ builds the physical infrastructure for the world’s first quantum-secured space network, spanning satellite operations and free-space optical communications, the Flight Software team is what keeps that constellation flying every day. 

As a Flight Software Engineer, you will write the software that runs our satellite fleet in orbit, working daily alongside FPGA developers, electrical engineers, and other subsystem owners to design, build, and evolve flight code. You’ll bring a demonstrable track record with complex, safety-critical systems, strong systems-architecture judgment, and the experience to help shape the team’s engineering roadmap, turning sophisticated radar technology into software that is reliable and easy to operate.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain flight software for a growing satellite constellation. 
• Collaborate with EE, FPGA, and ground software engineers to ensure seamless integration between hardware and software.
• Lead code reviews and mentor teammates with constructive, high-standard feedback. 
• Write and maintain unit and integration tests to ensure robustness and reliability of the software.
• Develop software documentation and provide cross-training to other team members.
• Troubleshoot and resolve software issues quickly, including in live on-orbit operations. 
• Participate in the software development life cycle, from requirement analysis to deployment. 
• Support integration and operations teams with software-related queries.  

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, or a related field or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years of relevant, hands-on engineering experience.
• Ability to support a design through all software lifecycles including initial schematic review and architectural tradeoffs, preliminary and detailed design, implementation, integration, and test.
• Experience working with real-time embedded systems - both hardware and software, including low-level drivers.  
• Hands on experience developing, testing, and debugging hard real-time software (bare-metal or RTOS).
• Familiarity with embedded Linux, Linux kernel modules, and standard Linux tools.
• Strong knowledge of programming compiled (C, C++) and scripted (Python, shell script, etc.) languages.
• Experience writing software for microcontrollers and other embedded systems, e.g., Xilinx Zynq SoCs.  
• Familiarity with software configuration management.  
• Hand-on experience with lab equipment and electronics hardware, e.g., oscilloscopes, logic analyzers. 

Why This Role

• Direct ownership of flight software running on satellites in orbit today, not a simulation.
• A front-row seat to IonQ’s next chapter: building the infrastructure behind the world’s first quantum-secured space network.
• A small, senior, high-trust engineering team where your architectural decisions carry real weight.

Required Qualification

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), Capella Employees must be a U.S. citizen, lawful U.S. permanent resident (i.e., current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State and/or the U.S. Department of Commerce, as applicable. Learn more about ITAR here.

Compensation

The approximate base salary range for this position is $145,920 - $191,047. The total compensation package includes base salary, bonus, equity, and a range of benefits available on our career site.