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Staff Software Engineer, Space Special Programs

Anduril


Job Location:

Herndon, VA - USA

Yearly Salary: USD 220000 - 292000
Posted: 29 September 2026 (2 days ago)
Application Deadline: 27 December 2026
Vacancies: 1 Vacancy

Job Summary

ABOUT THE TEAM

In the Space Special Programs team we build spacecraft and space systems which serve a wide variety of functions in the space architecture. At a time when space superiority can no longer be taken for granted and with space systems proliferating at an incredible rate the Space Special Programs team provides advanced mission critical capabilities to our customer base to be able to more effectively operate and survive within this expanding environment with limited personnel. Working across product engineering saleslogistics operations and mission success the Space Special Programs team develops tests deploys andoperatesnew unique space capabilities to drive mission success in challenging operational environments.

ABOUT THE JOB

We are looking for a Staff Software Engineer to join our rapidly growing team in Chantilly this role you will be responsible for implementation of the full lifecycle of flight software ground test software ground station software at both embedded and application levels. As the lead for the software engineering team you are expected to architect the software systems understand the full range of embedded host communication data storage computer vision FPGA-interfacing and algorithm implementation tasks you and your team will need to accomplish. You are expected to be an individual contributor as well as the team lead. Your engineering team as a whole must span the capabilities of deeply embedded software design implementation and debugging including data protocols RF communication machine learning computer vision and implementing control algorithms in a computationally-restricted environment; host side software for user interfaces equipment interfaces machine-to-machine communication data analysis display compression and extraction to human-useable forms; and interfacing with existing Command and Control software and databases to integrate the spacecraft systems in a simple fashion. The embedded tasking will also include writing code to operate at the intersection of hardware FPGA and software. Additionally you will be responsible for helping develop the system and mission designs & concepts and as the software development expert for mentoring and growing your team.

WHAT YOULL DO
  • Work with a cross-functional team to designmarket leading hardware-basedproducts
  • Drive product maturity through rapid prototyping design verification and qualification activities
  • Apply modern space-flightsoftwaredesign standardsand guidelines( detection and recovery error checkingdata redundancy etc.)to create high-reliability highly manufacturable systems and a team which implements them.
  • Architect and design flight ground and payload systems to be able to generically implement the given mission requirements and effectivelycommunicate these goals along with specific taskings to your team
  • Operate as a member of your team and a resource for them when they are stuck
  • Understand the mission needs and effectively translate them into software products that are both efficient in implementing but are generic enough to be ultra-reusableforlowest costfuture development
  • Lead the team inestablishinginternal guidelines and best practices for space flightsoftwaredesign testmanufacture and operations
  • Conduct peer-level and cross-discipline design reviewsand develop customer-facing system design documentation and presentations
  • Help drive developmentintegrationand test activities to meet schedule
  • Work in a fast-paced environment having to juggle multiple concurrent projects and customers
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
  • Bachelors degree in computer science electrical / computer engineering or similar engineering or technical field
  • 10 yearsSoftwareEngineering Experiencedirectly developing a combination of embedded host and product-specific software
  • 3 years of leading a softwareengineering team working onsmall spacecraft
  • Experience developing subsystem requirements and interfaces; including mission systemsand developing software architectures to meet those requirements with reusable software.
  • Experience writing embedded C code device drivers and implementing algorithms with limited computational & storage resources
  • Experience writing host level code for GUI database interaction and protocol interfaces/translators neededfor interfacingdifferent partsof spacecraft systems together (in both cases of having an explicit ICD and havingvery littleinformation)
  • Experience on maturespacecraft development programs including operationalandenvironmentaltesting.
  • Experience developing variousdesign artifacts such as: Design Review material (CoDR SDR PDR CDR TRRetc)design notesand other documentation to help assure a team of engineers understands the algorithms and intent of the software they are implementing
  • Outstanding communication skills to include presentation of developed artifacts
  • Must be a U.S. Citizen andable to obtain andmaintaina U.S. Top Secret security clearance
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
  • M.S. in aerospace mechanical computer science or similar engineering or technical field
  • Demonstrated High ownership and autonomy across theentire cradle-to-grave lifecycle of a spacecraft or space system.
  • Demonstrated ability to work in an extremely fast-paced nimble environment withprograms that have limited broadLevel-0requirements
  • 3 years working in a classified environment
  • Experience designing integrating and flyingCubesatspacecraft meant tooperatein LEO through GEO environments

US Salary Range

$220000 - $292000 USD

The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a wide range of compensation factors inclusive of base salary only. Actual salary offer may vary based on (but not limited to) work experience education and/or training critical skills and/or business considerations. Highly competitive equity grants are included in the majority of full time offers; and are considered part of Andurils total compensation package. Additionally Anduril offers top-tier benefits for full-time employees including:

Benefits

At Anduril we invest in our people. Our comprehensive competitive benefits package (available at little to no cost to employees) ensures youre supported in health recovery and whatever comes next.For more information Explore Our Benefits.

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Required Experience:

Staff IC