Embedded Systems Engineer
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Summary
Mantis Space, a venture-backed aerospace startup in Albuquerque building energy infrastructure for space, seeks an Embedded Systems Engineer to architect embedded computing for spacecraft and payloads — selecting processors/FPGAs, designing and bringing up hardware, and writing real-time firmware interfacing with sensors, lasers, and precision pointing systems.
Mantis Space is a venture-backed aerospace company pioneering
breakthrough technologies to build the first energy infrastructure in
space. Headquartered in New Mexico—the cornerstone of U.S. defense
R&D and a growing hub of the nation’s Space Valley—we are building
from the ground up to accelerate the next generation of satellite and
orbital energy infrastructure.
Our veteran-led team brings decades of leadership across space,
defense, and advanced R&D, with experience at Google, Meta,
AeroVironment/BlueHalo, Terran Orbital, NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, the Space Telescope Science Institute, and Apple. With
deep expertise in optics, photonics, and space systems, we are
designing and delivering the infrastructure that will power the future
of orbital energy and advanced aerospace operations.
Why Join Us:
- Build from the ground up: Directly shape our Albuquerque lab
and R&D test environment.
- Make an impact: Your systems will enable critical research in
optics, lasers, and energy systems for space.
- Grow with us: Work alongside leading engineers, operators, and
investors in a mission-driven environment.
- Competitive pay, full benefits, and equity in a company
shaping the future of energy and space.
About the Role:
Mantis Space is seeking an Embedded Systems Engineer responsible for
delivering the architecture, design, development, integration, and testing of embedded
computing systems for spacecraft and advanced payloads. This could be an individual
contributor or leader role.
This role spans both hardware and software. The engineer will be responsible for
selecting processors, microcontrollers, FPGAs, communication interfaces, and
supporting electronics; developing or guiding the design of the embedded hardware;
and building the real-time software and firmware that operate those systems.
The engineer will work closely with systems, electrical, controls, optical, power,
mechanical, and test teams to develop reliable embedded platforms that interface
directly with sensors, actuators, payloads, high-power electronics, and precision
pointing hardware.
The ideal candidate is comfortable moving between system architecture, circuit and
board-level design, processor and interface selection, firmware development, real-time
software, laboratory bring-up, and spacecraft-level integration.
Key Responsibilities
- Define and maintain the architecture for spacecraft embedded computing,
control, and mission-management systems
- Select processors, microcontrollers, FPGAs, memory, communication interfaces,
and supporting electronics based on performance, timing, reliability, radiation,
power, thermal, and mission requirements
- Design, develop, review, and bring up embedded processing and control
hardware, including processor boards, interface electronics, communication
hardware, and distributed control nodes
- Develop embedded software and firmware for spacecraft payloads, control
systems, sensors, actuators, and mission-critical electronics
- Implement mission management, command-and-control, telemetry, state
management, and fault-management functionality
- Develop deterministic and timing-critical software for real-time spacecraft
operations
- Develop and integrate software and firmware that interfaces directly with gimbals,
fast steering mirrors, inertial measurement units, cameras, photodetectors, motor
controllers, power electronics, and related hardware to achieve data sheet
performance of these components (e.g. low noise, low latency)
- Support implementation and execution of precision pointing, tracking, and control
algorithms
- Define communication architectures and data routing between processors,
sensors, payloads, actuators, and spacecraft subsystems
- Develop and implement interfaces using spacecraft and embedded
communication protocols and buses
- Define subsystem interfaces, data flows, timing budgets, synchronization
requirements, startup behavior, redundancy approaches, and fault responses
- Develop interfaces with high-power electronics, laser systems, optical payloads,
and spacecraft power subsystems
- Perform hands-on board bring-up, debugging, firmware development, hardware
troubleshooting, and laboratory testing
- Support schematic design, PCB design reviews, component selection,
processor-board development, and embedded hardware verification
- Develop hardware-in-the-loop and software-in-the-loop test environments for
subsystem and system-level verification
- Support spacecraft integration, verification, environmental testing, and mission-
readiness activities
- Perform root-cause analysis of hardware, firmware, timing, communications, and
system-integration issues and drive corrective actions to closure
- Document embedded system architecture, hardware interfaces, software
interfaces, communication protocols, timing requirements, design decisions, and
verification requirements
- Collaborate with multidisciplinary engineering teams throughout the full
development lifecycle
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline
- 7+ years of experience developing embedded systems for aerospace, defense, robotics, autonomous systems, industrial systems, or other complex hardware
- Strong experience developing systems that combine embedded hardware, firmware, and real-time software
- Experience selecting processors, microcontrollers, FPGAs, communication interfaces, memory, and supporting electronics for embedded applications
- Experience designing, developing, bringing up, or debugging custom embedded electronics and processor-based hardware
- Strong proficiency in embedded programming languages such as C or C++
- Experience developing software or firmware that interfaces directly with sensors, actuators, motors, cameras, data converters, or other electronic hardware
- Experience with processor architectures, communication buses, peripheral interfaces, and distributed embedded systems
- Knowledge of deterministic timing, interrupts, synchronization, concurrency, scheduling, and real-time operating systems
- Experience debugging embedded systems using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, debuggers, JTAG interfaces, protocol analyzers, and other laboratory instrumentation
- Strong understanding of hardware/software interfaces and the ability to troubleshoot problems across both domains
- Experience supporting system integration, hardware-in-the-loop testing, verification, and configuration management
- Strong systems-thinking, root-cause analysis, communication, and cross-functional collaboration skills
Benefits
Full range of competitive benefits including 100% employer paid
health insurance (medical, dental, vision), retirement plan, and
unlimited PTO
