Senior Software Engineer - Flight Software
Astranis · San Francisco, CA
$200,000–$280,000
Jul 23, 2026
San Francisco, CA
Jul 24, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A senior embedded software engineering role focused on writing and maintaining flight software for satellites — covering both the flight computer and control board firmware. Day-to-day work spans architecture decisions, C/C++ development, automated testing, and integration with avionics and ground control teams, with an added responsibility for mentoring junior engineers. Suits experienced embedded or systems software engineers with a background in high-reliability or safety-critical environments.
Senior level · 5+ years · San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA · Full-time
Pay in the description: $200,000–$280,000
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 80 people in the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 50–120
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $190,744 (middle half $167,095–$224,501). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (9)
The role requires U.S. citizenship, lawful permanent residency, or refugee/asylee status under ITAR/EAR export control regulations — this is a legal compliance gate, not a security clearance, so the clearance requirement is set to None. However, this citizenship/status requirement will meaningfully narrow the candidate pool.
The experience requirement is stated as '5-8+ years'; 5 is used as the minimum. The '+' on 8 suggests the upper bound is open-ended, but 5 is the hard floor.
C++ and C are presented as interchangeable ('modern C++ OR C'); C++ is listed as the primary with C as an alternative.
Communication protocols (TCP/IP, I2C, SPI) are listed under Requirements with firm language and are marked as required. Each is a distinct protocol and emitted separately.
Continuous integration and automated testing appear in the Requirements section as part of the delivery methodology; emitted as CI/CD.
Embedded Linux/POSIX, Python, VxWorks/Linux/FreeRTOS/QNX, safety-critical development, and hardware bring-up all appear under the 'Bonus' heading and are marked as preferred.
Safety-critical development (FDA, FAA, Automotive) and board bring-up/hardware integration are listed under Bonus but name no specific named technology or tool, so they are omitted per the no-generic-concepts rule.
The base salary range of $200,000–$280,000 USD/year is stated explicitly; total compensation also includes equity (ISOs) and benefits, but no figures are given for those components.
Location is Astranis's headquarters in Northern California (San Francisco Bay Area); the role is on-site given the nature of satellite hardware work and no remote option is mentioned.
Read the full posting
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