Flight Software Engineer
Astranis · San Francisco, CA
$130,000–$175,000
Jul 22, 2026
San Francisco, CA
Jul 23, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A flight software engineering role focused on writing and maintaining the software that controls and monitors spacecraft. Day-to-day work spans avionics and ground control software, telemetry systems, low-level hardware interfaces, real-time operating system components, and automated testing including hardware-in-the-loop setups. The role suits engineers with a background in C/C++ and Linux who are comfortable working close to hardware.
Mid level · San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA · Full-time
Pay in the description: $130,000–$175,000
“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 3,400 people in the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 2,550–4,450
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
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 (7)
The posting lists C and/or C++ as a single interchangeable requirement; C is emitted as the primary skill with C++ as an alternative.
Degree requirement: the JD states 'Bachelor of Science in CS, EE (or equivalent background knowledge)', which explicitly accepts equivalent experience — treated as no hard degree gate.
No security clearance is required, but US citizenship or lawful permanent residency is mandated for ITAR/export-control compliance.
No overall years-of-experience floor is stated; seniority is assessed as Mid based on the scope of the role (implementing and troubleshooting software components on a team, no explicit senior/lead framing).
'Hardware debugging' covers the bonus mention of reading schematics/datasheets and using debuggers, logic analyzers, and oscilloscopes — these are all aspects of the same embedded hardware-debugging skill.
All bonus items (real-time systems design, bare-metal embedded software, hardware debugging, web frameworks, databases, HITL test framework development) are listed under the 'Bonus' heading and are marked preferred.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): real-time operating systems.
Read the full posting
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