Embedded C Software Engineer for Spacecraft technology

Embedded C Software Engineer Guildford / Hybrid Standard 8 is working with an engineering team that builds embedded software for spacecraft and low orbit systems. These are real platforms, flying in genuinely hostile conditions. Think NASA, think SpaceX and you're on the right lines. This is not app-layer work dressed up as embedded. You'll be writing hardcore C close to the metal: hardware interfaces, tight timing constraints, comms protocols, real-time behaviour, and the messy integration problems that come with all of it. When the hardware is in orbit, the software has to be right, so there's very little room for guesswork. You'll sit in a multidisciplinary team where software, electronics, systems and mission delivery all overlap. It moves quickly and the bar is high, because the software has to hold up when it actually counts. The role You'll develop embedded C for mission-critical systems and own it end to end: design it, build it, test it, integrate it, and support it once it's running. The focus is robust, low-level software that talks straight to hardware. Day to day that means reading technical requirements, working out how the system really behaves, writing clean C, debugging the integration problems nobody else wants, and doing all of it inside a structured engineering process. Day to Day Writing embedded C for real-time and low-level systems • Developing software that interfaces directly with hardware • Working with RTOS and/or bare-metal environments • Supporting requirements definition, software design and implementation • Debugging timing, interface and integration issues • Working with communication protocols such as CAN, serial and IP networking • Building Python scripts or tools for testing, automation or support tasks • Taking software through review, verification and system-level testing • Collaborating with electronics, systems and hardware engineers • Keeping delivery moving without cutting corners on engineering quality What you’ll need • Strong commercial experience developing embedded software in C • Good understanding of real-time software development • Experience with RTOS or bare-metal systems such as VxWorks, RT Linux, FreeRTOS or similar • Solid knowledge of low-level software and hardware interaction • Experience working with structured software development processes • Python experience for scripting, tooling, test automation or diagnostics • Familiarity with interfaces and protocols such as CAN, UART, SPI, I2C, Ethernet or IP networking • Comfortable using modern version control and collaborative development workflows • Able to work pragmatically in a fast-moving engineering environment Useful background • Digital electronics knowledge • Experience with ARM, SPARC, RISC-V or similar processor architectures • Previous work in aerospace, defence, robotics, automotive, space, industrial systems or another safety/mission-critical domain