About Cowboy Space Corp

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Current energy and data systems rely on complex logistics and outdated infrastructure.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

As a Controls Software Engineer on the Pointing & Tracking team, you will own the software control loop that keeps a laser precisely pointed between two moving platforms, both satellite-to-ground and satellite-to-satellite. You will use closed-loop feedback from onboard sensors to drive fine-pointing actuators in an embedded real-time environment. This is control-systems software, not general application development: the core of the job is translating control theory into a robust, working real-time implementation and taking dedicated ownership of a system that is central to our mission.

Responsibilities

Own the pointing and tracking control loop from design through on-orbit operations

Design, implement, and tune closed-loop controllers that keep optical links precisely pointed between moving platforms

Translate control theory (e.g., state estimation, PID, state-space, optimal control methods) into real-time embedded software in Rust

Perform stability analysis, closed-loop tuning, and performance characterization of control algorithms

Build simulation and analysis tools to model, validate, and iterate on control system behavior

Support hardware integration and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing of the full sensing-to-actuation chain

Develop automated test frameworks to validate control performance across operating conditions

Collaborate with GNC, optics, avionics, and firmware teams to define interfaces and system-level pointing architecture

Investigate on-orbit and test anomalies, perform root cause analysis, and drive fixes across software and hardware boundaries

Develop fault detection, isolation, and recovery (FDIR) strategies

Basic Qualifications

3+ years of experience (or equivalent practical experience) in control systems, GNC, robotics, or embedded software development

Hands-on experience designing, implementing, and tuning closed-loop control systems