Senior Flight Software Engineer, Arc Vehicle

Advanced Reentry Technologies Who We Are: Inversion is an aerospace and defense company pioneering advanced reentry technology to enable next-generation capabilities from space. By combining high-performance materials, precision aerodynamics, and mission-driven autonomy, Inversion is transforming reentry into an operational capability for an entirely new class of missions. The company’s highly maneuverable reentry spacecraft, Arc, is designed for rapid global cargo delivery, hypersonic testing, and other national security missions that require precise, controlled flight through the atmosphere. Arc creates an entirely new transportation domain, unlocking unprecedented speed and global reach. Headquartered in Los Angeles, Inversion designs, manufactures, and integrates its spacecraft under one roof, enabling the company to move rapidly from concept to flight. The company is backed by leading investors including Y Combinator, Spark Capital, and Lockheed Martin Ventures, with customers across the U.S. government and commercial space industry. Position Overview: As a Senior Flight Software Engineer at Inversion you will be responsible for designing, implementing, and verifying the core flight software that controls the Arc hypersonic reentry vehicle. You will own safety-critical software modules end-to-end, including vehicle state machines, flight autonomy, and fault-management logic . Key Responsibilities: Develop, test, and deploy high-reliability, real-time flight software . Design and implement safety-critical state machines, autonomous flight sequencing, and fault detection, isolation, and recovery (FDIR) algorithms. Integrate and optimize GNC flight software modules from the Reentry and Accurate Landing teams into the main C++ software loop. Perform low-level driver development and board bring-up on flight hardware, debugging hardware-software interfaces using logic analyzers and oscilloscopes. Lead the development and execution of Software-in-the-Loop (SIL) and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) test suites to validate software performance and timing margins. Participate in rigorous code reviews, establish technical coding standards, and mentor junior embedded software developers. Collaborate with systems and avionics engineers to define interface control documents (ICDs), telemetry packets, and communication protocols (CAN, Ethernet, Serial). Required Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science , Computer Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or equivalent technical experience. Typically 5+ years of professional experience developing embedded, real-time, or safety-critical software. Strong proficiency systems programming languages (C / C++ / Rust) in a Linux-based development environment. Solid understanding of embedded Linux , deterministic software design, memory management, and multi-threaded architectures. Hands-on experience writing software that directly interfaces with physical…