Avionics Software Engineer

About Lodestar

Lodestar's mission is to develop the first "Protect and Defend" capability for high-value space assets in orbit. Our flagship product, MITHRIL, is our hardware-agnostic, AI-enabled autonomy software suite that enables us to augment any off-the-shelf spacecraft with the ability to autonomously detect, characterise, and reversibly neutralise orbital threats. By building on the proven space heritage of our best-in-class satellite-bus partners and fully integrating MITHRIL into a single unified platform, we deliver an end-to-end, autonomous in-space bodyguarding service.

About the Job

We’re hiring Avionics Software Engineers across three technical focus areas: Flight Software, Distributed Middleware & Embedded Linux Depending on your experience, you’ll take ownership of one of these areas while working closely across avionics, autonomy, AI/ML, and hardware. 

What You'll Do

Within our Avionics Software team, we're hiring multiple engineers across three core technical specialisms. Please identify which role best matches your skills and experience: 

1. Flight Software Engineering

• Design and develop deterministic, safety-critical, fault tolerant flight software for autonomous spacecraft.
• Build robust software for RTOS-based flight computers, implementing FDIR and defensive programming techniques.
• Collaborate with autonomy, AI, and hardware engineers to integrate, test, and validate mission-critical software on representative spacecraft platforms.

2. Distributed Middleware Engineering

• Develop the distributed middleware enabling communication, workload orchestration, and telemetry across heterogeneous onboard compute systems.
• Build resilient software infrastructure including high-performance IPC, networking, process supervision, and fail-safe Over-The-Air (OTA) update mechanisms.
• Deliver scalable software platforms that support fault-tolerant autonomous operations.

3. Embedded Linux Engineering

• Develop and maintain custom embedded Linux platforms for NVIDIA Jetson-based flight computers, from board bring-up through to deployment.
• Optimise kernel performance through real-time tuning, low-level driver development, system profiling and selective kernel slimming.
• Architect a hardened, minimal-footprint Linux-based operating system.

Qualifications

The following qualifications are desired across all three roles: 

• BEng/MEng in Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent experience.
• Strong foundation in C++.
• Experience developing software for embedded systems using Linux or RTOS (e.g., RTEMS, FreeRTOS).
• Solid understanding of multi-process architectures and inter-process communication.
• Strong communicator and self-starter; able to work independently and in a collaborative team.
• Demonstrated skills in debugging and performance characterisation.

Preferred Skills & Experience

Desired skills and experience relevant to the three roles:

• Good understanding of communication protocols.
• Familiarity with containerisation and deployment tools (e.g. Docker, Kubernetes).
• Deep understanding of Linux kernel architecture, bootloaders (e.g., U-Boot), and low-level system bring-up.
• Understanding of fault-tolerant design principles, error handling, or defensive programming in resource-constrained systems.
• Experience with real-time Linux kernel tuning.
• Background with the space industry.
• Experience with publish-subscribe middlewares.
• Exposure to fail-safe Over-The-Air (OTA) update frameworks.
• Demonstrated strong problem-solving skills and ability to work in a fast-paced environment.
• Proven experience in system integration and working with multidisciplinary teams.

Compensation & Benefits

• Pay Range:
  • (E1) Junior Engineer: £30,000 - £55,000 / year
  • (E2) Mid-level Engineer: £55,000 - £75,000 / year
• Meaningful equity incentives as part of our employee option pool
• 28 Days Annual Leave
• Comprehensive medical, dental & vision coverage
• Contributory pension
• Be part of a scrappy, dynamic, multidisciplinary, collaborative crew 🏴‍☠️

Important Information:

For security reasons background checks will be undertaken prior to any employment offers being made to an applicant. These checks will include nationality checks as it is a requirement of this position that you be eligible to access equipment and data regulated by the United States' International Traffic in Arms Regulations. 

Under these Regulations, you may be ineligible for this role if you do not hold citizenship of one of the following countries: Albania, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, or United States, or if you hold ineligible dual citizenship or nationality. For more information on these Regulations, click here ITAR Regulations.

Additional Information:

Compensation bands are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual level and base pay is determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on job-related skills, education, experience, technical capabilities and internal equity.

Lodestar is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.