Flight Software Engineer

AIKO is one of the most innovative deep tech startups in Europe, enabling the future of autonomous space missions. We have the vision that automation is coming to space, and we are leading the way to fully autonomous space missions.
We are a young reality, we are growing, and we will be a strong player in the space economy in the near future.
The company is committed to achieving 50/50 gender balance in its staff: female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply for this position.

FLIGHT SOFTWARE ENGINEER

As a FSW engineer, you will be responsible for developing, integrating, and testing AIKO products with external satellites manufacturers' flight software and SDKs. You’ll spend your days participating in all aspects of software design and development, from requirements definition through coding and testing. Your work will ensure we meet customer requirements by making data-driven decisions in architecting, planning, building, and testing the design in a testbed prototype and subsequent delivery of the end product.
The ideal candidate will have experience with the software life cycle (concept development, requirements definition, design, development, testing, and deployment), preferably on spacecraft-related projects. This individual must have a strong working knowledge of object-oriented design using the C and C++ languages. The ideal candidate will have recent experience with at least one real-time operating system. The candidate must also be comfortable working in an Agile Scrum environment.
Spacecraft Flight Software expertise although not mandatory, would be preferable; good familiarity with ECSS and CCSDS standards (and industrial state-of-the-art approaches) is preferable for the management of space operations, telemetry, and telecommands controls
We are looking for clever, driven, collaborative engineers that love solving challenges and want to make a difference in the future of space missions. You will take full ownership of unique challenges, collaborating with a team of motivated engineers to design and deliver solutions that will allow AIKO to move quickly toward our goals. The software that you and your team develop is critical to the success of AIKO missions.

RESPONSIBILITIES:
Project support:

• You will work as part of AIKO project teams, together with customers' satellite engineering managers and instrument managers, providing specialist technical support for real-time embedded software systems, including flight software and the corresponding development and validation facilities.
• You will provide technical monitoring of software development contracts, including verification of industrial outputs, reviews, and acceptance.
• You will participate in the evaluation of industrial proposals and in project reviews.

Technology activities:

• Develop highly reliable and available software systems
• Provide support for the integration and interface of our software products with external satellites manufacturers' flight software and SDKs
• Write high-quality structured bare metal and Linux-based software for embedded processors (e.g. ARM, x86, etc.)

Standardization activities:

• You will be contributing to AIKO standardization activities in the software systems domain.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelors of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering, Applied Math, Physics, or related discipline and typically 3 or more years of relevant experience. Higher education may be considered in lieu of experience.
• Experience developing models and simulations using software and software languages such as Python, or C/C++.
• Strong experience in real-time embedded software (e.g. SPARC LEON processors, ARM, RISC-V; multicore platforms, IMA/TSP, RTOS, etc.)
• Knowledge of all phases of the software development lifecycle (e.g. requirements engineering, design, coding, V&V, functional validations at the system level, support to operations, agile methodology, etc.)
• Strong experience in software development projects (e.g. C/C++, Ada & assembly programming languages; software development environments, software validation facilities, and ground testbeds & support equipment)
• Confident with C, C++, Python
• Proven project support experience (i.e. leading software activities in a project team), including participation in reviews (i.e. assessment of software-related project status at particular project milestones)
• Proven experience in the management and monitoring of industrial activities (e.g. elaboration of statements of work, user specifications, proposal evaluation, supplier interactions, monitoring progress and quality, acceptance, etc.)
• A good understanding of modern software engineering methods and tools, R&D trends, and the industrial landscape.
• Ability to rapidly work with minimal supervision on projects involving both small and large engineering teams
• Willingness to work on a small team performing complex engineering design evaluations for a diverse mission where everyone has input matters.
• Experience working on multi-disciplinary design and development teams.
• Thorough understanding of systems engineering principles, requirements analysis (RA), CONOP development, and Verification and Validation (V&V).

PREFERRED EXPERIENCE:

• Masters of Science degree in Engineering, Physics or related discipline
• Spacecraft systems knowledge, and experience with software development for satellite platforms and/or payloads (e.g. experience with avionics subsystems and integrated flight hardware)
• Knowledge of ECSS and CSSDS standards
• Proven experience with space software engineering standards and their application, or equivalent standards in other domains
• Excellent communication skills (written and verbal).

BENEFITS:

• Competitive salary
• Health insurance
• Access to online courses for self-improvement
• Flexible schedule
• Stock option plan is available for selected employees