Embedded Software Engineer

About the role

Mission

Cowboy Space Corporation is solving the global energy crisis by building the infrastructure for abundant, resilient space-based solar energy. We are tackling one of humanity’s most complex engineering challenges with a world-class team dedicated to delivering a revolutionary power platform. Cowboy Space Corporation is transforming how civilization powers, computes and connects - from orbit to Earth.

Background

Cowboy Space Corporation is building the infrastructure to power and connect the orbital economy. Our modular, scalable satellites collect sunlight in Low Earth Orbit to enable multiple integrated applications: transmitting energy via infrared lasers (space-to-earth and space-to-space), powering on-orbit high-performance computing clusters (GPU/TPU), and providing secure, high bandwidth optical data transport.

Current energy and data systems rely on complex logistics and outdated infrastructure. Cowboy Space Corporation overcomes these challenges by enabling direct, on-demand, secure, and scalable energy distribution and data processing from space. This will revolutionize how we operate in orbit and on Earth, supporting the rapidly expanding space industrial base, ISAM (In-Space Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing) operations, remote regions, and military bases.

Baiju Bhatt founded Cowboy Space Corporation in 2024. Inspired by his father’s work with NASA Langley Research Center, Baiju earned his B.S. in Physics and M.S. in Mathematics at Stanford before co-founding Robinhood, now a public company that has helped over 20 million Americans access the financial system. Cowboy Space Corporation has raised ~$365 million from Index Ventures, Interlagos, Construct Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, NEA, and others.

This is an ambitious mission that demands extraordinary talent. Cowboy Space Corporation ’s team has worked at places like SpaceX, Blue Origin, Stoke Space, Astranis and NASA, and is based in San Carlos, CA. If you're ready to solve complex technical challenges and help build the most important energy company in the world, we want to hear from you.

THE ROLE

We're looking for an Embedded Software Engineer to take ownership of real-time software for spacecraft subsystems, including power distribution, thermal control, and related avionics boards. You'll join a small embedded team where your work spans the full lifecycle: board bring-up, driver and application development, hardware/software debugging, and supporting reliable firmware updates for hardware in the field and on orbit. This is a high-ownership role: after ramp-up, you'll be the standing owner of a meaningful piece of our embedded software stack.

RESPONSIBILITIES

- Own embedded software for spacecraft subsystems from concept through on-orbit operations

- Design, develop, and debug real-time embedded software for microcontroller-based avionics boards in both FreeRTOS and bare-metal environments

- Implement low-level drivers, peripheral interfaces, and real-time control loops for power distribution, thermal control, sensors, and actuators