Senior Platform Firmware Engineer

📋 Job Overview

Cowboy Space Corp. is building the infrastructure to power and connect the orbital economy. Our satellites operate in Low Earth Orbit to collect sunlight and enable a new class of capabilities—from powering on-orbit compute, to transmitting energy via infrared lasers (space-to-earth and space-to-space), powering on-orbit compute to delivering secure, high-bandwidth optical data. By rethinking how energy and data are generated and distributed in space, we’re unlocking entirely new ways to operate both in orbit and on Earth.

🏢 About Cowboy Space Corp.

Founded in 2024 by Baiju Bhatt (co-founder of Robinhood), Cowboy Space Corp. is backed by leading investors and built by a team from top aerospace and defense organizations. We’re moving quickly to solve complex technical challenges and build a new category of space infrastructure.

🎯 The Role

This role sits at the boundary between hardware and software. 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.

✅ Key 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.

⭐ Desirable Experience

• 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.

🎁 Benefits

The salary range for this position is $170,000 – $235,000 annually. The actual base salary offered will depend on factors such as job-related skills, experience, qualifications, and internal equity.

Equity in Cowboy Space Corp.

Employees and their eligible dependents may enroll in medical, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) retirement savings plan

Paid time off

10 paid holidays per calendar year

Paid parental leave

Relocation assistance if applicable

Daily lunch in the office and a fully stocked kitchen with beverages and snacks

🛂 Visa & Eligibility

Export Control Requirement: To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), applicants must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.