Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Flight Software

Heart Aerospace is an electric aviation company focused on electrifying regional air travel through the development of battery-electric aircraft. The company is designing the ES-30, a 30-seat electric regional aircraft intended to serve short-haul routes with zero CO2 emissions, offering airlines a fundamentally lower-cost operating model compared to conventional turboprop or jet aircraft. Heart Aerospace also operates the X1 experimental aircraft as part of its development program to validate core technologies ahead of the ES-30's entry into service. The company's mission is centered on decarbonizing aviation, starting with regional routes where electric propulsion is most technically and economically viable. By targeting short-distance air travel, Heart Aerospace aims to eliminate direct carbon emissions on these segments while making regional connectivity more affordable for both operators and passengers. The company has secured investment from leading venture capital firms aligned with electrification and decarbonization goals, as well as strategic investments from major airlines that have also signed on as early customers. Heart Aerospace was founded in Sweden and has established a presence in the United States, with its listed address in Torrance, California. The company represents a new generation of aerospace manufacturers betting that advances in battery technology and electric drivetrains can transform commercial aviation, beginning with the regional segment where routes are short enough to make today's battery energy density practical.

Los Angeles, CA

Role Overview:

At Heart Aerospace we are developing the ES-30, a regional hybrid-electric airplane with a capacity of 30 passengers, an electric zero-emission range of 200 km and an extended hybrid range of 400 km. Heart is targeting type certification of the ES-30 by the end of the decade.

Your mission

As a Senior/Staff Software Engineer on the Flight Software Team, you are responsible for all aspects the development of the software on the aircraft. You will interface with other engineers to develop and understand requirements, architect and writing high quality code, build tests and test infrastructure, documentation, and provide support through the software lifecycle. You will report to the Manager of Flight Software and collaborate with other engineers as part of a multi-functional team.

Every engineer on the team is responsible for laying the technological foundation for the aircraft software and supporting systems, including but not limited to implementing aircraft control functions on embedded systems, developing aircraft models and simulation tools, implementing critical fault tolerance mechanisms, and building hardware and software test systems.

Key Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Create highly reliable embedded software that control critical systems on Heart’s aircraft.

• Work with interdisciplinary teams to scope, design and build next generation hybrid electric aircraft capabilities, including engine controllers, battery management systems, flight control actuators, flight control systems and aircraft data networks.

• Develop tools that allow for test execution across multiple environments, ranging from high fidelity simulated software environments, to full scale test stands.

• Invent new systems that enable more frequent and reliable software deployment, test execution, and data analysis as part of a continuous integration and release system.

• Mentor junior engineers and set best practices for the team.

You'll Bring These Qualifications as a Senior Software Engineer:

• Bachelor's or above in computer science, electrical engineering, or similar engineering discipline.

• 5+ years professional experience writing safety-critical code for vehicles, or similar applications.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English.

• Passion for aircraft and Heart’s mission.

You'll Bring These Qualifications as a Staff Software Engineer: 

• 8+ years professional experience writing safety-critical code for vehicles, or similar applications.

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English.

The ideal candidate would have:

• Significant experience writing software in Rust, Python, C, C++, or a similar systems language.

• Experience writing code for execution in an embedded environment (microcontrollers, bare metal, RTOS, embedded OS).

• Experience modeling cyber-physical systems (6 DoF Simulators, Monte Carlos, Battery Pack Models).

• Strong systems design fundamentals. Experience architecting software systems (and contributing requirements to hardware design) for vehicle systems. Experience with various approaches to fault tolerance and fault mitigation.

• Significant experience with software and hardware test development. Experience with unit tests, CI/CD, integration testing, data collection and management, report generation, fuzzing and other advanced automated test methods.

• Experience developing software under a functional safety compliant process (for example, compliant to IEC 61508, ISO 26262, DO-178C, or similar). Strong understanding of functional safety and how to apply it to software development.

Base Pay Range:

• Senior Software Engineer: $155,000 —$193,000 USD.
• Staff Software Engineer: $190,000 —$238,000 USD.