FLIGHT SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT TEAM LEAD

The Development Team Lead (DTL) will provide hands-on technical leadership for the complete flight software lifecycle supporting the ALICE instrument, including mission formulation, requirements development, architecture, software implementation, verification, integration, environmental testing, launch support, and mission operations. This position serves as the primary technical lead for the software development team while collaborating closely with NASA management, Principal Investigators, systems engineers, instrument engineers, integration and test teams, and mission operations personnel. Location: Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD. This is a hybrid position.

PRIMARY DUTIES

• Lead the technical execution of the ALICE Flight Software Development Team throughout the complete mission lifecycle.

• Develop, analyze, design, implement, integrate, verify, validate, and deliver embedded flight software supporting the ALICE science instrument.

• Lead software architecture, technical design, requirements decomposition, and software implementation activities.

• Develop real-time embedded software supporting instrument command and control, telemetry, health and safety monitoring, fault management, science data acquisition, and spacecraft interfaces.

• Coordinate software development activities across multidisciplinary engineering teams including systems, hardware, instrument, integration & test, and mission operations.

• Conduct software design reviews, code reviews, technical interchange meetings, and peer reviews.

• Support instrument integration, environmental testing, observatory integration, launch preparation, and post-launch mission operations.

• Identify technical risks, develop mitigation strategies, and resolve complex software and system integration issues.

• Support continuous improvement of software engineering processes, development workflows, automated testing, and configuration management.

• Mentor software engineers and foster technical excellence across the development team.

• Demonstrated experience leading software development teams for complex aerospace, spacecraft, or embedded systems.

• Extensive experience across the complete software engineering lifecycle including mission formulation, requirements development, software architecture, detailed design, implementation, integration, verification & validation, acceptance testing, and mission operations support.

• Experience developing embedded flight software for spacecraft or scientific instruments.

• Experience integrating software with flight hardware and electronics.

• Experience with software configuration management using Git, GitLab, Subversion, or equivalent tools.

• Familiarity with Linux development environments and embedded operating systems.

• Excellent written, verbal, technical communication, leadership, and problem-solving skills.

• Demonstrated ability to lead multidisciplinary engineering teams while remaining an active software developer.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• NASA Flight Software development experience.

• Instrument Flight Software development experience.

• Earth Science mission experience.

• Experience supporting instrument integration and environmental testing.

• Experience with RTEMS and/or VxWorks.

• Experience with embedded Linux.

• Experience with SpaceWire, CCSDS protocols, or spacecraft communication interfaces.

• Experience with Python development and software automation.

• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and automated testing frameworks.

• Experience participating in SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, and FRR.

• Experience supporting launch and on-orbit mission operations.

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE: 20+ years of experience developing embedded real-time software using C/C++.

EDUCATION/CERTIFICATION: Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, or a related technical discipline.

SECURITY CLEARANCE: Must be a U.S. Citizen and eligible to obtain the required National Agency Check (NAC) clearance .

BENEFITS OFFERED: Medical, dental, vision, life insurance, short-term disability, long-term disability, 401(k) match, flexible spending accounts, EAP, parental leave, paid time off, holidays and more. Learn more about MCSG Technologies benefits: https://www.mcsgtech.com/benefits/.