About Us

Our mission is to safeguard critical space infrastructure by providing the first integrated security platform to see threats, decide fast and respond at scale. Where spacecraft have traditionally been costly, slow to produce and require extensive effort to coordinate, SMC is developing systems that are produced at scale and operated with human-on-the-loop autonomy to drastically reduce the cost and complexity of orbital operations. As space becomes more congested and contested, the satellites that underpin modern life, including communications, navigation, financial systems, are increasingly exposed. We are developing the vehicles and software to protect them, working with commercial operators and government agencies across allied nations. Our approach is grounded in economics as much as engineering. The Optimus Viper Rapid Response Vehicle delivers genuine mission capability at a fraction of conventional spacecraft cost, designed for high-volume production and rapid deployment across all orbital regimes. Solstice OS, our AI-driven command and control platform, fuses space domain awareness data and automates mission planning and vehicle coordination, allowing smaller teams to manage larger constellations and respond to emerging situations in seconds rather than hours. The future of space depends on assets that can be inspected, monitored and protected in orbit. We are building the technology to make that possible.

Why Join Us

We're a start up. Things move fast, resources are lean, and we're building as we go. What we offer is prospect: to learn at speed, grow with the company, and leave your fingerprints on something that's never been done before. At Space Machines Company, engineers, innovators,



and problem solvers join forces to push the limits of what's possible. If you want to build technology designed to protect and power humanity's future in space and see your work make a visible impact. This is where you'll do it.

How We Work

We are builders first. We approach every challenge through a cycle of design, build, test, and refine, making ideas real, learning from results, and improving with each iteration. We challenge assumptions to make sure we're solving the right problems, and we strengthen our solutions through collaboration and feedback. We use process where it adds value and set it aside where it slows us down. There are a lot of firsts here, and we meet them with curiosity and courage. We win as one team.

Primary Focus (Firmware Development, Integration, and FSW)

- Firmware Development: Develop firmware for the control units of our satellite subsystems. This includes deriving requirements and defining architecture to implementation and testing. You will collaborate closely with stakeholders who provide the core algorithms to execute and the operational constraints to meet.
- Hardware Interfacing: You will act as the primary interface between the Software and Hardware teams, ensuring that the in-house OBC (where the flight software runs) aligns with what the SW team expects.



This includes managing the integration and verification of hard core IP (processor subsystem) and soft core IP (FPGA fabric) with firmware and BSPs, making any necessary modifications to the BSP or firmware layer to reflect hardware updates.
- Subsystem Integration: Integrate subsystems units (thermal control, radio, propulsion, GNSS, attitude control, payload, and power). For each vendor or in-house product, you will review documentation, agree on interfaces, bring up the bus, write the driver, implement the state machine, and validate it.
- Core Flight Software: Drive the requirements, architecture, implementation, and rigorous testing of the flight software such as telemetry downlink, command uplink, health monitoring, communication, control of external control units via interfaces such as CAN, RS-422/485, and Ethernet.

Broader Contributions

- Third-Party Software: Track upstream versions, review critical-path code, patch defects, contribute fixes upstream, and maintain internal mirrors for strict supply-chain control.
- Functional System Architecture: Decompose spacecraft-level requirements into the specific state machines and FDIR (failure detection, isolation, and recovery) behaviors the software will implement. You will be writing the specification the software is built against.
- Ground Segment Interface: Integrate the ground station with the flight software protocol and validate the end-to-end communication path.
- Infrastructure: Maintain CI/CD automation.

About You

You’ll thrive in this role if you bring: A builder's mindset - turning concepts into flight-ready hardware through hands-on design, analysis and testing. An iterative approach - designing, building,

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📌 Senior Flight Software/Firmware Engineer (Sydney)
🏢 Space Machines
📍 Sydney