Senior Platform Firmware Engineer Verified today
About Cowboy Space
Cowboy Space Corporation is building modular, scalable satellites in Low Earth Orbit to transmit energy via infrared lasers, power on-orbit high-performance computing clusters (GPU/TPU), and provide secure optical data transport. This enables direct, on-demand energy distribution and data processing from space for ISAM operations, remote regions, and military bases.
The Role
You will work across platform firmware, FPGA logic, board bring-up, system management, and autonomous recovery systems to ensure reliable operation from first power-on through orbital deployment. This role sits at the boundary between hardware and software.
Responsibilities
- Develop and maintain platform firmware and board management infrastructure for advanced compute systems
- Own system bring-up and low-level boot sequencing for custom hardware platforms
- Design and implement FPGA/CPLD logic for power sequencing, reset orchestration, watchdog functionality, and telemetry
- Develop and customize BMC firmware and management stacks using OpenBMC and related technologies
- Implement and maintain platform management interfaces including Redfish and/or IPMI
- Debug complex hardware/firmware interactions across CPUs, GPUs, PCIe fabrics, and networking devices
- Collaborate closely with hardware, validation, thermal, and systems teams during bring-up and deployment
- Develop fault recovery and autonomous reboot for remote orbital systems
- Support secure boot, firmware update, and system attestation architectures
Required Qualifications
- Hands-on experience in embedded systems, platform firmware, BMC development, or hardware bring-up engineering
- Strong proficiency in C/C++ and Python
- Deep understanding of platform initialization and boot architectures
- Strong familiarity with hardware communication interfaces including I2C, SPI, UART, GPIO, and JTAG
- Experience debugging hardware/software interactions at board and system level
- Familiarity with FPGA or CPLD development workflows using Xilinx or Altera platforms
- Strong systems-level debugging and problem-solving skills
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience with server platforms, AI infrastructure, or high-performance compute systems
- Familiarity with PCIe initialization and accelerator bring-up
- Experience with remote management and fleet-scale telemetry systems
- Knowledge of secure boot, attestation, and firmware security architectures
- Familiarity with radiation-tolerant or fault-resilient system design
Compensation and Benefits
Salary: $170,000-$235,000 annually, based on skills, experience, qualifications, and internal equity.
- Equity in Cowboy Space Corp
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance
- 401(k) retirement savings plan
- Paid time off and 10 paid holidays per year
- Paid parental leave
- Relocation assistance if applicable
- Daily lunch in office and fully stocked kitchen
ITAR Requirements
To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations (ITAR), applicants must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.