SES is internalizing a critical segment of the satellite supply chain and needs a Senior Manager to own the on-board payload software for a high-performance satellite communications system to accelerate development timelines, reduce costs, and ensure quality.
Requirements
- Deep experience (10+ years) in embedded/real-time software for satcom payloads, avionics, or equivalent safety-critical domains
- Proficiency in RUST/C/C++ and deterministic scheduling, and high-reliability coding practices
- Expertise with Linux systems programming and driver development
- Experience in low level programming and hardware description languages such as VHDL, Assembly and/or Verilog
- Experience with hard real-time embedded systems (bare-metal or RTOS)
- Strong understanding of RF/DSP/SDR building blocks and PHY/MAC-like functions in high-throughput systems
- Hands-on with HIL, EM/PFM-style integration & test, and automated verification pipelines
Responsibilities
- Define on-board software architecture for high-throughput payload functions; select languages, RTOS/middleware, diagnostics, and observability
- Lead implementation of real-time data-plane and control-plane components (Rust/C/C++), including scheduling, resource management, and fault detection/isolation/recovery (FDIR)
- Own software integration on flight-representative hardware; drive performance, determinism, and reliability
- Partition algorithms across CPU/FPGA/DSP/ASIC; align with power/thermal/memory budgets and radiation constraints
- Define high-rate data movers, buffer management, and timing interfaces; ensure testability and maintainability
- Specify robust APIs and telemetry between on-board functions and ground systems; ensure compatibility with modern network architectures (including NTN-relevant concepts)
- Establish flight-software engineering practices: coding standards, code reviews, static/dynamic analysis, unit testing, continuous integration, and hardware-in-the-loop regression
Other
- Eligibility for ESA/EU/NATO/National SECRET personnel security clearances
- Able to travel nationally & internationally
- 10+ years of experience in embedded/real-time software
- Demonstrated leadership of senior engineering teams and delivery of mission-critical systems
- Owner’s mindset: ships, learns, iterates; knows when to prototype and when to harden
