Flight Software Verification Engineer
Software - Villeneuve, CH
The position
- Crew
- Software
- Location
- Villeneuve, CH
- Type of contract
- Full-time
Your role
Build the tests that expose spacecraft software failures on the ground and prove that recovery works.
PAVE Space is building LYOBA, a heavy kick stage moving up to 4-ton payloads from LEO to high-energy orbits in under 24 hours.
Why now
Our first spacecraft is scheduled to fly in 2028. We are assembling its flatsat step by step: onboard computer, remote terminal unit, sensors, actuators, telecom, and power system.
Your first weeks will focus on turning that growing setup into repeatable, automated verification. You’ll join a small avionics software team, reporting to the Avionics Lead, and establish the framework we use to decide whether software is ready to fly.
You will own
Build the software verification framework, from test specifications and acceptance criteria to automated execution and reporting.
Automate hardware-in-the-loop and flatsat test campaigns, working with the Avionics Lead who owns the HiL infrastructure.
Develop fault-injection campaigns for our Triple Modular Redundant computer and communication links, verifying fault detection, isolation, recovery, and degraded operation.
Verify software integration with avionics equipment and payload interfaces, investigating failures across software and hardware.
Establish regression testing, coverage analysis, and GitLab CI pipelines, selecting suitable tools and frameworks.
Maintain traceability from requirements to tests and results, producing reproducible verification evidence for software releases and future customer assurance needs.
What we are looking for
Several years of hands-on experience verifying embedded software, including integration testing on real hardware.
Strong C++ skills and experience investigating behaviour in bare-metal systems.
Experience developing automated tests, fault-injection methods, and frameworks that other engineers can use.
An ability to translate requirements and failure scenarios into meaningful tests with explicit acceptance criteria.
Practical experience with Git and CI pipelines, preferably GitLab.
Effective use of AI tools to develop software and tests, with the judgement to challenge generated code and independently verify its behaviour.
Fluent English, including clear technical writing.
Nice to have: spacecraft software verification, redundant computing, FDIR, communication interfaces, customer assurance or compliance experience, and a relevant master’s degree or equivalent practical experience.
You will fit if
You investigate why a test passed as carefully as why it failed.
You can challenge a developer’s assumptions and help turn the disagreement into a useful test.
You use AI to accelerate implementation while taking responsibility for the verification logic, expected results, and evidence. You’re ready to choose the framework, write the code, connect the hardware, and investigate the anomaly.
This is a full-time role, fully on-site in Villeneuve, VD, Switzerland. The flatsat and verification infrastructure are still being built. You will work with incomplete systems, changing interfaces, and failures that require patient investigation.
What makes that worth it: you’ll establish how PAVE Space verifies its flight software, with direct access to the engineers and hardware. Your work will help turn an evolving spacecraft into a system whose behaviour we can demonstrate before launch.
Apply to build our flight software verification capability or recommend someone who would want to own it.