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Current energy and data systems rely on complex logistics and outdated infrastructure.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

Build and maintain software supporting board bring-up as well as safe, robust in-field and in-flight firmware update mechanisms

Integrate with and develop robust command and telemetry infrastructure

Work deeply at the software-to-hardware boundary: read schematics, understand pinouts, drive physical hardware, and diagnose issues that could originate in firmware or hardware

Build robust, fault-tolerant systems with attention to reliability, determinism, and performance in constrained environments

Support board bring-up, hardware integration, and hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) testing

Develop automated test frameworks and validation tooling for embedded systems

Collaborate closely with electrical, avionics, and software teams to define system architecture and interfaces

Investigate anomalies, perform root cause analysis, and implement fixes across hardware/software boundaries

Contribute to system-level design, including fault detection, isolation, and recovery (FDIR) strategies