Manager, Flight Software
ICEYE US· Defense & Space· Sep 15, 2026 · 1mo ago
Irvine
In office
Full-time
Manager
$180K–$210K
8+ years exp
Job description
Third-party recruiters: Please do not contact us about this role.
Manager, Flight Software
At ICEYE, we design, build and operate the largest fleet of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites in the world. Using advanced technology, our constellation collects topographical data about any location on Earth, day or night, through any weather conditions.
Headquartered in Southern California, our customers are society’s heroes – intelligence professionals, warfighters, first responders, and scientific researchers. As a trusted mission partner, the United States and its allies depend on us for critical information when it matters most.
Role Description
The Manager, Flight Software will lead and grow a team of flight software and embedded software engineers responsible for designing, developing, integrating, and verifying software for spaceborne SAR payloads and space vehicles. Operating within the Space Systems engineering team, this role combines strong technical depth in embedded and flight software with hands-on people management, program execution ownership, and cross-functional leadership.
In the near term, the manager will rapidly build a working understanding of the current ICEYE US satellite system and payload architecture to guide the direction for next generations of ICEYE US products. They will own the flight software program plan, define team structure and tasking, and drive software architecture decisions.
Responsibilities
- Lead, mentor, and grow a team of flight software and embedded software engineers; own hiring, onboarding, performance development, and technical career growth for direct reports.
- Own the flight software program execution: work breakdown, scheduling, resource loading, risk tracking, and status reporting against program milestones (SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, FRR).
- Set and enforce software standards, processes and operating framework for how software is designed, developed tested though program life cycles.
- Guide the team in hardware/software co-design and integration, including schematic review, pin mapping, register-level peripheral configuration (UART, SPI, I2C, CAN, SpaceWire, MIL-STD-1553, LVDS), and hardware debug.
- Define and own the software development plan, regression and software-only test strategy, and verification approach throughout the full development cycle, leading to formal system-level verification.
- Own the command-and-control ICD and interface specification process, ensuring hardware-to-hardware and system-to-system command and telemetry interfaces are documented, baselined, and maintained under configuration control.
- Produce and maintain software program documentation — architecture descriptions, SOW inputs, test procedures, and configuration-managed deliverables — consistent with the program software development plan.
- Serve as the primary flight software technical counterpart to systems engineering, hardware, and program management stakeholders.
Required Qualifications
- 8+ years of professional experience developing bare-metal or RTOS-based embedded/flight software in C and/or C++ for resource-constrained or space-heritage hardware targets.
- 2+ years of direct engineering management or technical lead experience, including tasking, mentorship, and performance ownership for a software team.
- Strong experience with SoC and microcontroller development spaces and bring up, including board support packages.
- Demonstrated experience with communication and data protocol implementations (SPI, I2C, UART, CAN, RS-422, SpaceWire, or equivalent).
- Experience owning software ICDs and interface specifications for command and telemetry interfaces.
- Demonstrated ownership of the full embedded software lifecycle: requirements decomposition through unit test, integration, and system-level verification.
- Experience with DO-178 or NPR-7150.2D software standards.
- Experience with GN&C sensor interfaces or attitude control system (ACS) software integration.
- Familiarity with avionics integration testing and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test environments.
Preferred Qualifications
- Background in SAR payload, radar, or RF/digital signal chain embedded control software.
- Experience reading and interpreting electrical schematics and PCB layouts to support firmware debug and hardware/software interface verification.
- Familiarity with FPGA firmware development and hardware/software co-design in a flight or space environment.
Pay Range and Compensation Package
· The estimated base salary range for this role is $180k - $210k depending on experience
· Other benefits include health coverage, flexible PTO, a friendly work environment, plus extra fun perks!
Physical Requirements
This position primarily works in an office environment. It requires the ability to sit or stand for long periods of time and frequent walking. Daily use of a computer, phone, office equipment and other computing and digital devices is required. Some travel may be necessary – the ability to travel by car, plane, train, bus, vessel, or metro, operate a motor vehicle and maintain a valid Driver’s License and/or effectively navigate public transportation is required.
While performing the responsibilities of the job, the employee must be able to read and respond to inter-office communications as well as effectively participate in meetings. The employee is often required to sit and use their hands or fingers, to lift up to 50 lbs., pull, push, carry, handle, or feel. The employee is required to carry, handle items, reach with arms and hands, to stoop, kneel, or crouch; talk, or hear. Mental demands may require prolonged concentration, reading comprehension, understanding and interpretation of concepts, ideas, and philosophies. The physical demands of the position described herein are essential functions of the job and employees must be able to successfully perform these tasks for extended periods. Reasonable accommodations may be made for those individuals with real or perceived disabilities to perform the essential functions of the job described unless such accommodations would cause ICEYE US an undue burden.
EEO Statement
ICEYE US is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, age, or any other protected characteristic under federal, state, or local law.
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- Platform
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