Embedded Software Engineer, GNSS - TrustPoint

Join TrustPoint and Build the World's First Commercial GPS System in Space

GPS is a ubiquitous global utility in modern society; knowing one's location is critical for government, commercial, and personal applications.  Still, today's solutions for determining location are inaccurate, slow, unencrypted, and susceptible to jamming and spoofing. These shortcomings make GPS insufficient for tomorrow's safety-critical and high-precision applications, a problem TrustPoint intends to solve. 

TrustPoint is developing a fully commercial next-generation GPS service to provide significant performance, security and reliability improvements for GPS users. This includes better accuracy, quicker Time to First Fix, and anti-spoof and anti-jam capabilities. The improvements will support US Government position and timing service resiliency as well as enable next-generation commercial applications like drone delivery, self-driving cars, urban air mobility, and augmented reality. The $55B annual GNSS Receiver market is ripe for disruption and TrustPoint intends to lead that revolution with our commercial infrastructure and services. 

The Position

With locations outside Washington DC and in Silicon Valley, TrustPoint is currently seeking a Full Time Software Engineer to join the team and help develop the embedded systems needed for our commercial Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). Our system consists of a constellation of satellites and a network of ground stations and as the Software Engineer, you will be responsible for designing, developing and implementing innovative embedded software solutions in support of both space and ground assets. You will work directly for program and project managers in support of software development and testing across all aspects of our system. You will also research and advise on the state of industry's software best practices, tools, and products in support of company software strategy. As an early hire, significant upward mobility will be available to this individual given strong performance, including manager and director level positions in the coming years. 

 We'll Expect You To…

• Develop and implement simple, reliable and fault tolerant software for a variety of SoC's and microcontrollers in C/C++, MicroPython and Python 
• Participate in driver development, bring up hardware enablement on Linux, and other real time operating systems 
• Test software in simulation and hardware-in-the-loop environments, including the development of comprehensive unit and regression tests 
• Work with the larger engineering and business team to establish software and architecture requirements including supporting software related business development tasks 
• Support the Space and Ground Segment Operations team in system commissioning, operations automation, anomaly investigation and mitigation. 
• Unwavering focus on meeting software development targets and achieving objectives 

You'll Need to Have…

• B.S. in computer science or equivalent practical experience (M.S. preferred) 
• 5+ years of related experience developing C/C++ software for high-performance embedded devices 
• Demonstrated ability to develop and debug software and firmware 
• Familiar with one or more cross compile build environments 
• Highly motivated, self-starting, and able to perform duties autonomously without supervision 
• Hands on experience with satellites, robotic systems, or similar 
• Experience with build system, package manager and SW analysis tool 
• Experience with bootloader, linux kernel and buildroot 
• Excellent professional and interpersonal communication skills, verbal and written
• Passionate about solving customer problems through new and innovative technology.
• Experience with FPGAs a plus 
• Experience with RF systems a plus 
• Experience with real-time operating systems (FreeRTOS and TI-RTOS a plus) 
• Strong organizational skills and professional business practices.
• Ability to travel 10-20%.

We'd Like to See…

• Strong technical background in engineering, mathematics, computer science.
• Self-starting, autodidactic with a DIY mindset 
• Experience working in startups 
• Active US security clearance 

Cultural Fit

• Thrive in a start-up environment.
• Effective communication style that instills a culture of optimism and positivity.
• Sense of humor and ability to proactively problem solve.
• Encourages colleagues to think and plan strategically while executing well tactically.
• Works well with all company levels and disciplines (i.e. Legal, HR, etc.).
• Willing to “roll up sleeves” in a new venture, working closely with colleagues.

Compensation and Benefits

The selected candidate will be competitively compensated with salary, equity (stock options), and standard benefits.