Embedded Software Jobs in Pasadena, CA (NOW HIRING)

Inversion builds advanced reentry systems to deliver next-generation capabilities from space.
Our mission is to make Earth radically more accessible by turning Low-Earth Orbit into an on-demand logistics domain. We see space not as a destination, but as a platform - one that unlocks unprecedented speed and global reach.
Our spacecraft are designed to deliver payloads anywhere on Earth in under an hour, operating through extreme reentry conditions and landing with high precision. These systems open the door to new ways of testing, delivering, and operating at hypersonic speeds.
Inherently dual-use, our technology is built to meet urgent national security needs while laying the groundwork for future commercial applications. Backed by leading investors including Y Combinator, Spark Capital, and Lockheed Martin Ventures, and working with partners such as the U.S. Space Force and NASA, Inversion is pushing the boundaries of what's possible in space-based defense and logistics.

What You'll Do

As a Senior Embedded Software Engineer at Inversion, you will report directly to the Director of Engineering, Avionics. In this role, you will develop the software that powers and controls Inversion's hypersonic reentry vehicle. You will work across the full software stack, from low-level hardware interfaces and board support packages to real-time vehicle control, networking, and mission-critical flight applications.

You will partner closely with electrical, systems, GNC, and integration engineers to bring up new hardware, develop flight software architectures, and deliver reliable software capable of operating through all phases of flight. This role requires strong ownership, hands-on debugging skills, and the ability to rapidly solve challenging hardware-software integration problems.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, test, and maintain embedded software for flight computers, avionics subsystems, payload interfaces, and vehicle control systems.
• Develop high-reliability software in C and C++ for real-time embedded systems operating in mission-critical aerospace environments.
• Own software development throughout the entire product lifecycle, including requirements definition, architecture, implementation, verification, flight test support, and operational deployment.
• Develop and maintain Board Support Packages (BSPs), hardware abstraction layers, bootloaders, and device drivers for custom avionics hardware.
• Perform board bring-up and hardware enablement activities on new processor and FPGA-based platforms.
• Develop software interfaces for sensors, actuators, radios, power systems, storage devices, and vehicle networks.
• Design and implement vehicle-wide communication architectures enabling reliable exchange of telemetry, commands, sensor data, and control information across distributed embedded computing platforms using DDS, CoAP, and other modern networking technologies.
• Support distributed vehicle software architectures including telemetry, command and control, health monitoring, fault management, and data logging systems.
• Design and execute unit tests, integration tests, and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) verification campaigns.
• Debug complex software and hardware interactions using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers, JTAG debuggers, and software instrumentation tools.
• Collaborate closely with electrical, systems, manufacturing, integration, and flight operations teams to rapidly identify and resolve vehicle-level issues.
• Participate in software design reviews, architecture reviews, code reviews, and flight readiness reviews.
• Support vehicle integration, environmental testing, flight test operations, and mission execution activities as required.

Required Qualifications

• Must have the ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government Secret/Top Secret security clearance.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• Typically 5+ years of professional experience developing embedded software for aerospace, defense, robotics, automotive, or other high-reliability systems.
• Strong proficiency in modern C and C++ development.
• Experience developing software for bare-metal, RTOS, or Embedded Linux environments.
• Experience debugging software at the hardware boundary, including processor bring-up and peripheral integration.
• Strong understanding of computer architecture, memory systems, interrupts, DMA, and embedded operating systems.
• Experience developing software interfaces for common embedded communication protocols including SPI, I2C, UART, CAN, and RS-422/-232/-485.
• Experience developing distributed embedded systems using communication middleware and protocols such as DDS (Cyclone DDS, Fast DDS, RTI Connext), CoAP, MQTT, gRPC, REST, TCP/IP, UDP, and Ethernet.
• Experience with software verification, unit testing, integration testing, and root-cause analysis.
• Proficiency with Git-based development workflows and modern software development practices.
• Strong Python development skills for test automation, hardware control, and engineering tooling.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to work effectively across multidisciplinary engineering teams.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience developing flight software for spacecraft, launch vehicles, hypersonic vehicles, autonomous aircraft, or defense systems.
• Experience with NXP i.MX RT, STM32, TI Sitara, Xilinx Zynq, AMD Versal, or similar embedded processing platforms.
• Experience with embedded operating systems (FreeRTOS, Zephyr, Embedded Linux) and embedded Linux build systems (Yocto/OpenEmbedded, Buildroot, PetaLinux), including development of custom Linux distributions, BSPs, and production image pipelines.
• Experience developing device drivers, Board Support Packages (BSPs), bootloaders, and low-level hardware interfaces.
• Experience with deterministic networking, Precision Time Protocol (PTP), DDS middleware, or distributed embedded systems.
• Experience with high-speed interfaces such as PCIe, GigE Vision, USB 3.0, CameraLink, Aurora, or GMSL.
• Experience with FPGA development, HDL design, or hardware acceleration architectures.
• Experience developing automated test frameworks and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) systems.
• Familiarity with cybersecurity concepts, secure boot, encryption, and trusted computing architectures.
• Experience with fault-tolerant and safety-critical software architectures.
• Experience supporting vehicle integration campaigns, environmental testing, flight testing, or mission operations.
• Previous experience working in a fast-paced startup environment with aggressive development schedules.

Our office headquarters is located in Playa Vista, CA. This position requires in office presence.

The California annual base salary for this role is currently $139,000 - $201,000.  Pay Grades are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data.  Individual pay will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: interviews and an assessment of several factors that are unique to each candidate, job-related skills, relevant education and experience, certifications, abilities of the candidate and internal equity.