Software Engineer – Lunar Rover Communications

Department: Starmine

Location: Hawthorne, CA

Compensation: $100K – $175K • Offers Equity

Employment Type: FullTime

About Starpath

Starpath develops and manufactures the technologies that will enable humans to live on the Moon and Mars. Today, we are building robotic systems that locally produce the essential commodities a lunar civilization will require at extreme scale: water, power, and oxygen. Our ultimate goal is to build and operate a self-sustaining city on Mars.

Software Engineer - Lunar Communications and Teleoperation

In this role, you will own the software for communicating from our ground stations to our rovers on the Moon. A commercial lander will provide the link between our ground stations on Earth and our rovers on the Moon. You will be responsible for designing and implementing the software to provide telemetry from the rover and for sending commands to the rover.

You will also be responsible for designing and implementing the teleoperation system that will allow operators on Earth to drive our rovers on the Moon. Even though our rovers are primarily autonomous or semi-autonomous, teleoperation capability is a critical backup that will allow a human operator to rescue a rover that has become stuck or lost. This teleoperation capability will need to handle large latencies (~3 seconds) between the camera images and the rover motion commands.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement the end-to-end software chain from ground station consoles through the lander relay to the rover on the Moon

• Develop an easy-to-use teleoperation user interface that works well with high latency video streams

• Work closely with the Autonomy Team to design a system that can smoothly transition between teleoperated and autonomous control

• Work closely with the Avionics Team to ensure that communications software is compatible with communications hardware

Required Qualifications

• Experience programming in Python and C/C++

• Experience writing network software

• Experience with long-range outdoor wireless networks

• Experience with video capture, video encoding, and video streaming

• Evidence of exceptional engineering ability

• Degree in Computer Science or a related field OR demonstrated excellence at coding via significant professional experience

• Outstanding communications skills

• A strong interest in working hands-on with robot hardware

• A desire to make humans a multi-planet species

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience programming in ROS/ROS2

• Experience developing software to control real robots

• Experience developing software for aerospace applications

• Experience developing and deploying software in production

• Excellence in academic performance or extracurriculars

• Leadership experience in extracurricular or professional settings

Position Details

• Location: Los Angeles - Hawthorne

• Salary base rate is $100-175k/yr plus equity package; compensation scales with candidate experience

• PTO & health/dental/vision coverage included

Additional Requirements

• Willingness to work extended hours as needed

EAR REQUIREMENTS:

• To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.