Staff Flight Software Engineer at IonQ
Louisville, CO
$145,920–$191,047from the description
Jul 13, 2026
Louisville, CO
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A staff-level engineering role focused on writing and maintaining the software that runs a commercial SAR satellite constellation in orbit. Day-to-day work involves developing flight code for real-time embedded systems, collaborating with hardware and FPGA engineers on integration, conducting code reviews, and troubleshooting live on-orbit issues. Suited to experienced embedded software engineers with a background in safety-critical or hard real-time systems.
Staff level · 6+ years · Boulder, CO · Full-time
“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 5 people in the Boulder, CO area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 3–8
Applicant volume Light — Few people clear these requirements, so an application that does clear them gets looked at. Worth applying to even if you miss a nice-to-have.
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 $168,179 (middle half $132,051–$211,194). 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 (8)
The role is titled 'Staff Flight Software Engineer' and involves cross-team architectural leadership and roadmap ownership — consistent with a Staff-level IC band, not merely Senior.
A Bachelor's degree in CS, CE, EE, or a related field is listed in Qualifications but explicitly allows 'equivalent practical experience,' so the degree requirement is set to None.
Xilinx Zynq SoCs is listed as an example ('e.g.') within the embedded systems requirement rather than a standalone hard gate, so it is marked preferred.
Software configuration management and lab equipment (oscilloscopes/logic analyzers) are framed with 'familiarity' and 'hands-on experience' language within the same qualifications block but read as contextual/supporting rather than firm rejection criteria; they are marked preferred accordingly.
No US security clearance is explicitly required; ITAR/export-control compliance (US Person status) is required but is a legal eligibility condition, not a DoD clearance gate.
The role is based in Louisville, CO (part of the Boulder, CO CBSA) with partial remote flexibility — not fully remote.
C and C++ are listed together as compiled languages; both are emitted as separate skills given they are distinct technologies both used in the stack, with each listing the other as an alternative to reflect the 'and/or' nature of the listing.
Ignored 2 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): real-time embedded systems, software configuration management.
Read the full posting
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