Flight Software Engineer (M/F)

About this role

Astroscale France is looking for a Flight Software Engineer (M/F)

This role with significant technical ownership will focus on the design, development and validation of safety-critical Flight Software enabling autonomous rendezvous, proximity operations (RPO), and robotic servicing missions, including debris removal and life extension.

You’ll join a team developing cutting-edge autonomous spacecraft performing complex in-orbit operations that have not yet been achieved at commercial scale.

🛰️

Responsibilities

• Flight Software
• Design, develop and validate onboard Flight Software for Astroscale spacecraft, ensuring deterministic real-time execution under constrained onboard resources.
• Define and maintain software interfaces (ICDs) with spacecraft subsystems.
• Integrate GNC and Computer Vision algorithms into real-time onboard software, ensuring deterministic execution and system-level consistency.
• Contribute to and influence the onboard software architecture and hardware-software partitioning.
• Implement robust fault detection, isolation, and recovery (FDIR) mechanisms.
• Develop and execute Software-in-the-Loop (SIL) and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) test campaigns in support of mission validation.

Wider responsibilities

• Liaise with GNC and Computer Vision teams to integrate their work on the Flight Software.
• Support coordination of Flight Software activities across subsystem teams to ensure coherent system integration.
• Attend and support reviews with potential partners or clients.
• Support knowledge transfer across Astroscale teams globally.
• 🚀 Expected results
• Deliver Flight Software that meets mission performance, safety, and reliability requirements.
• Achieve successful integration with spacecraft subsystems and mission simulations.
• Contribute to on-time delivery of Flight Software for mission milestones (e.g. PDR, CDR, launch readiness).
• 🧑‍🚀Experience and Qualifications required
• Essential:
• Bachelor's or master's degree in computer science, software engineering, or relevant engineering / science discipline.
• 5 years’ experience in software development for real-time embedded systems (C/C++).
• Experience designing deterministic, multi-threaded real-time software.
• Knowledge of hardware solutions and hardware interfacing (drivers).
• Experience with software version control systems (e.g. Git) and continuous integration pipelines (e.g. Gitlab).
• Strong debugging skills across software, hardware interfaces, and system-level interactions.
• Proactive and self-managing, able to plan and effectively lead areas of responsibility whilst contributing collaboratively within a close-knit team.
• Fluent in French and English
• Be eligible and registered to work within Europe
• Desirable:
• Experience developing software for the aerospace sector, including on platforms such as VxWorks or RTEMS.
• Experience across all stages of the mission design lifecycle, from initial concept through design, test, and operations.
• Familiarity with UML.
• Familiarity with commonly used protocols and standards for communications, such as CCSDS, CAN, Spacewire.
• Knowledge of the cFS software framework.
• Development on Linux-based systems.
• ⚙️ Core competencies
• Demonstrates behaviours in line with Astroscale values (mission and people focused, transparent, innovative and pioneering, diverse and customer focused).
• Proactive, able to build working relationships, mentoring & knowledge sharing
• Location
• Astroscale France (Toulouse), with some hybrid working

What we offer

• At Astroscale, we believe that when people feel supported, they can focus on achieving extraordinary things.
• Premium family health insurance (Mutuelle) 100% funded by the company
• 100% employer-funded disability & life insurance coverage (Pervoyance)
• Salary maintained from day one of sick leave
• Hybrid working (up to 2 days remote per week)
• Remote work allowance
• Paid child sickness leave
• Additional family and caregiving leave
• About Astroscale

Astroscale is the global leader in on-orbit servicing, dedicated to the secure and sustainable development of space. The company delivers a variety of innovative and scalable on-orbit servicing solutions, including life extension, refurbishment, upgrades, in-situ space situational awareness, end-of-life, and active debris removal. Since its first successful launch in March 2021, Astroscale has proven rendezvous and proximity operations technologies in orbit during the ELSA-d and ADRAS-J missions.

Astroscale spacecraft have been selected for pioneering missions with JAXA, the U.S. Space Force, the European Space Agency, the UK Space Agency, and Eutelsat. As more satellite operators adopt on-orbit servicing to routinely inspect, relocate, remove, and extend the life of spacecraft, the potential of a circular space economy — and a future of no waste in space — is being unlocked.

Headquartered in Japan, Astroscale has a global presence with subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, the United States, France, and Israel. Find out more about Astroscale at www.astroscale.com.