Embedded Engineer

Citra Space Corporation 

📍 Colorado Springs, United States 🇺🇸

full-time
mid-level
hybrid
Posted —

Key Skills

RFDSPYoctoBuildrootFPGA

Industry

TelecommunicationsAerospace

Job Description

In this role, you will sit at the intersection of our RF, DSP, and Optical teams. You will design the compute platforms and firmware that carry raw sensor data from our custom frontend hardware into our DSP signal processing pipelines. This means building and tuning the OS, drivers, and hardware interfaces that our DSP routines run on, and making hardware platform decisions that directly impact algorithm performance and latency.


Location: Colorado Springs, CO. Hybrid work schedules available but must reside in the local area or be willing to relocate.


Responsibilities

  • RF Frontend Integration: Design and implement firmware and low-level drivers to interface custom RF frontend hardware (ADCs, tuners, clock distribution) with embedded compute platforms
  • Compute Platform Selection & Design: Evaluate and select embedded compute platforms (e.g., CPU, FPGA SoCs, GPU-accelerated SBCs); contribute to hardware architecture and PCB-level integration where needed.
  • DSP Algorithm Porting: Work closely with DSP engineers to port and optimize signal processing algorithms onto target hardware; implement SIMD/GPU/FPGA acceleration layers to meet real-time performance budgets.
  • Embedded OS & BSP Development: Build and maintain Yocto or Buildroot-based Linux images, board support packages (BSPs), and real-time extensions
  • Firmware & Driver Development: Write low-level firmware and kernel drivers in C and/or Rust for peripherals including high-speed ADC/DAC interfaces, FPGA bridges, RF control buses (SPI, I2C, UART), and PCIe/USB3 data paths.
  • Testing & Validation: Develop hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test fixtures and automated test suites to validate firmware, driver correctness, and end-to-end signal chain performance.


Qualifications

  • Education: Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a closely related field.
  • Experience: 4–7 years of professional experience in embedded systems development, with at least some exposure to RF, signal processing, or sensor systems.
  • Firmware & Driver Skills: Proficiency in C and/or Rust for bare-metal or Linux embedded environments; experience writing Linux kernel modules, device drivers, or FPGA interface logic.
  • Embedded Linux: Hands-on experience building custom embedded Linux distributions using Yocto or Buildroot, including kernel configuration, device tree authoring, and BSP development.
  • Hardware Interfaces: Working knowledge of high-speed digital interfaces relevant to RF systems: LVDS, PCIe, USB3, and standard control buses (SPI, I2C, UART).
  • DSP Fundamentals: Solid understanding of digital signal processing concepts (sampling, filtering, FFT, I/Q signal representation) sufficient to translate algorithm requirements into hardware and software architecture decisions.
  • Debugging: Strong skills in mixed hardware/software debugging using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, JTAG, and Linux performance tools


This position requires compliance with U.S. export control laws and regulations. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3) to meet the requirements of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and/or Export Administration Regulations (EAR).