Senior Embedded Software Designer
Summary
Kepler Communications is hiring a Senior Embedded Software Engineer in Toronto to design and maintain embedded software for its satellite fleet and ground systems, including drivers, kernel modules, and secure communications. Core stack is C/C++ on embedded Linux/RTOS (Yocto, FreeRTOS) with hardware interfaces like SPI, I2C, UART, and CAN.
Our mission is to provide real-time on-orbit connectivity for critical missions, enabling a new era of data-driven intelligence and innovation. With 33 satellites launched to date, Kepler operates the first commercial optical data relay constellation, enabling real-time, continuous space communications while supporting advanced on-orbit compute and hosted payload capabilities.
Key Responsibilities:
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Design, develop, and maintain reliable, high-quality embedded software for both spacecraft and ground-based systems supporting a growing fleet of satellites
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Design and implement secure communications capabilities, including encryption, authentication, and key exchange for next-generation data links
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Build and maintain low-level software components including device drivers, kernel modules, hardware interfaces, and platform services
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Develop automated tests, validation tools, and technical documentation to support robust software delivery and long-term maintainability
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Participate in software architecture discussions, design reviews, and code reviews to ensure software quality and system reliability
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Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to define system requirements, debug complex issues, and evolve system architecture
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Identify performance gaps, reliability risks, and architectural shortcomings in existing systems, and drive improvements across the software stack
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Provide technical leadership, mentorship, and guidance to junior engineers while contributing to engineering best practices and development standards
Required Skills & Qualifications:
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6+ years of experience developing embedded software for complex, high-reliability systems
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Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent practical experience
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Strong software engineering fundamentals, including system design, debugging, testing, performance analysis, and maintainable code development
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Proficiency in C/C++ for embedded systems, including concurrency, interrupt handling, memory-mapped peripherals, and hardware communication interfaces such as SPI, I2C, UART, and CAN
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Experience developing software for embedded Linux and/or RTOS environments, including familiarity with build systems such as Yocto/OpenEmbedded and operating systems such as FreeRTOS
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Experience developing low-level embedded Linux components including kernel modules, device drivers, and device tree integrations
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Experience developing and maintaining automated test frameworks, validation tooling, or hardware/software integration test environments
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Strong cross-functional collaboration and communication skills, with the ability to work effectively across software, hardware, and operations teams
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Proficiency with modern software development workflows and tools, including Git-based version control and code review practices
Bonus Points:
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Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or related field
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Experience developing software for aerospace applications
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Experience implementing embedded security solutions such as secure boot, hardware security modules (HSMs), certificate/key management, authentication, or encrypted communications
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Familiarity with Linux networking concepts and infrastructure, including routing, interfaces, netlink, or packet-processing pipelines
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Experience developing multi-stage bootloaders
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Strong knowledge of computer networking and modern networking protocols
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Experience with RTL (Verilog and/or VHDL) and embedded SoCs
Skills
As published by lever · 4 questions · 2 written answers
Basics
Which location are you applying for?, Resume/CV, Full name, Email, Phone, Current location, Current company, LinkedIn URL, Twitter URL, GitHub URL, Portfolio URL, Other website, Website/Blog URL, What is your age range?, With which ethnicity do you identify?, With which gender do you identify?, With which sexual orientation do you identify?, Do you identify as a person with a visible or non-visible disability?, Are you a veteran/have you served in the military?
Pick from a list (2)
- Are you legally able to work in Canada according to the laws and regulations of the province or territory where you live?
- Kepler follows a hybrid work model for some positions. Specific schedules may vary by team and should be coordinated with your manager to meet business needs. Are you available to work on-site at 24 Ward Street, Toronto, ON M6H4A6 on average 3+ days per week?
Written answers (2)
- Please share briefly why you're interested in Kepler and this position.
- In 100 words or less describe a project where you exhibited Extreme Ownership. What aspects did you take ownership of, why does this demonstrate going above and beyond? What was the final outcome?