Ground Station Software Engineer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

Burlingame, California

Full time

On-site

Engineering

• $193K – $218K • Offers Equity

The final job level and salary will be determined based on a range of factors including the candidate’s education, qualifications, knowledge, skills, abilities, and relevant experience. The listed salary range is provided to offer insight into potential compensation, but it’s not a guarantee of the final offer. While we include the full range to be transparent, offers most often fall within the middle portion rather than the top.

Xona is the navigational intelligence company bringing real-time, centimeter-level certainty to any device, anywhere on Earth.

With Pulsar – the world’s most advanced PNT satellite infrastructure in Low Earth Orbit – Xona will offer a future-proof, backwards-compatible global positioning system optimized for absolute precision, superior power, and robust protection.

We are seeking a high-caliber Software Engineer specializing in Cybersecurity and Cryptography to lead the development of our production‑grade ground segment software. This isn't just a standard security role; you will be a primary architect and implementer of the cryptographic foundations that protect our satellite constellation and the sensitive data moving between Earth and orbit.

You will build the "trust anchor" of our mission, ensuring that command uplinks, telemetry downlinks, and user data remain authenticated and encrypted against sophisticated threats.

• Cryptographic Implementation: Design and implement production‑ready cryptographic modules for key management, identity and access management (IAM), and secure communication protocols (e.g., TLS, AES‑GCM, ECC).
• Defensive Programming: Apply rigorous defensive programming techniques to eliminate common vulnerabilities (buffer overflows, integer underflows, race conditions) and ensure software resilience against adversarial inputs.
• Persistent Memory Integration: Develop secure data‑at‑rest solutions for persistent memory (PMEM) architectures, ensuring that sensitive cryptographic material stored in non‑volatile RAM is encrypted and protected against cold‑boot or physical extraction attacks.
• Ground Software Development: Lead the development of high‑availability ground station software that manages the security lifecycle of the satellite constellation.
• Root of Trust & HSM Integration: Integrate Hardware Security Modules (HSMs) and Trusted Platform Modules (TPMs) into the ground infrastructure to ensure secure key storage and signing operations.

• Experience: 5+ years of software engineering experience with a heavy focus on security‑sensitive applications.
• Languages: Mastery of C/C++ with a focus on memory‑safe patterns and defensive coding standards (e.g., MISRA C, SEI CERT). Proficiency in Python for security tooling.
• Systems Programming: Direct experience programming for persistent memory or non‑volatile storage, including an understanding of memory‑mapped files and data consistency models.
• Applied Cryptography: Deep understanding of symmetric/asymmetric encryption, digital signatures, hashing, and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI).
• Security Infrastructure: Hands‑on experience with Cloud Security (AWS), Kubernetes security, and automated CI/CD security scanning (SAST/DAST).

• Experience with Satellite Ground Segment software or aerospace communications.
• Knowledge of Post‑Quantum Cryptography (PQC) standards.
• Familiarity with hardware‑level security and side‑channel attack mitigation.
• Experience implementing Zero Trust architecture in hybrid‑cloud environments.

For U.S. Roles: To comply with U.S. Government space technology export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the United States (i.e. Green Card holder), or other protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3).

For U.K. Roles: To comply with U.K. regulations, this role requires Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks, and successful candidates must be eligible to obtain UK Security Clearance (SC).

For Canada Roles: Successful candidates must obtain and hold a security clearance at the reliability status level, and pass security assessment for the Canadian Controlled Goods Program (CGP) and ITAR.

We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.

Compensation Range: $193K - $218K