Head of Flight Software

Karman+

We are inventors, designers, engineers, scientists, tinkerers, entrepreneurs, adventurers, artists, activists, global citizens, architects, musicians, builders, writers, athletes and space nerds. We partner with the best minds and most experienced teams across industry and academia, bringing together the knowledge, experience, and skills required to navigate our critical path.

Mission

We want to mine space resources from near-Earth asteroids to provide abundant, sustainable energy and resources in space and for Earth.

Vision 

Asteroid mining has lived at the intersection of scientific research and popular culture for decades, with as many academic papers published as there are books, TV shows and movies about it.

Access to resources, with its finite nature and disparate distribution, plays an essential part in the geopolitical web of power and wealth. It has defined economic growth to such an extent that we have been using them as primary demarcation lines and identifiers in our history, from the stone to bronze and iron age to our current silicon age.

But our resources-driven growth faces a massive existential challenge, with climate change, ecosystem degradation and resource depletion demanding a complete reset. Humanity needs to shift global transportation, manufacturing, construction and energy onto a sustainable path.

Expanding beyond the Kármán line is where we believe transformative future growth and innovation will be found. Recent missions by NASA (OSIRIS-REx & DART) and JAXA (Hayabusa2) have firmly pushed the idea of using space resources from academic research into commercial opportunity.

We believe the Regolith Age, powered by abundant space resources, is an inevitability that we can accelerate.

 

We value these principles:

• Diversity of thought. We believe that different perspectives drive better results. We aim to build diverse teams and a diverse company.
• Ownership, feedback and accountability. Ideas improve through collaboration, discussion and iteration. Decisions don’t follow the same pattern and revert to the mean when made in a group. We aim to have clear ownership, accountability for results and autonomy to deliver. 
• No silos. We build cross-functional teams to be able to deliver on our goals. There are no predefined lanes for people to operate in, information is pushed out across all teams to make sure we benefit from cross-pollination.
• High talent bar, no a**holes. We optimize for potential and a growth mindset. We value experience, but only when balanced with self-awareness and first principles thinking.
• Small is beautiful. The best results as well as the best work experience come from a small team of talented people working towards a common goal.

 

 

Position: Head of Flight Software

Location: Denver, CO

Position Type: Full-time

Why this role matters to our organization:

 

At Karman+, we’re a bold, fast-moving space startup on a mission to redefine what's possible with a lean team and cutting-edge technology. Our High Frontier mission requires an advanced, reliable flight software stack to control every aspect of spacecraft operation—from attitude control to data handling and system health monitoring. If you're a seasoned software engineer with a passion for space, expertise in flight systems, and the leadership skills to guide a small team, we want you onboard.

 

What it takes to be successful in this role:

 

As the Head of Flight Software, you will set the vision for the software systems powering our missions, building and leading a team to design and implement software solutions that drive our spacecraft’s success. You’ll take full ownership of the flight software for the High Frontier mission. This includes leading a team in designing, developing, testing, and deploying all software necessary to operate the spacecraft in space. You’ll lead a team to incorporate and build upon existing frameworks, such as NASA’s Core Flight Software (cFS) or  F', to streamline development and enhance system reliability. You’ll work with operating systems like Linux and real-time Operating Systems like FreeRTOS, and collaborate on the development of ground systems to enable seamless communication with the spacecraft, monitor its performance, and execute mission-critical commands.

This role demands both technical depth and leadership skills—you’ll be writing and reviewing code, integrating software with hardware systems, and managing a team of software engineers to meet tight timelines. If you thrive on building robust software that performs flawlessly in the unforgiving environment of space, this is your mission.