Senior Software Development Engineer, Amazon Leo Optical Inter-Satellite Link

About Amazon Leo

Amazon LEO is an initiative to increase global broadband access through a constellation of 3,236 satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). Its mission is to bring fast, affordable broadband to unserved and underserved communities around the world.

What you'll do

• Design, develop, and optimize highly reliable flight software for optical inter-satellite link systems, spanning low-level device drivers and real-time control loops to high-level autonomous behaviors, fault management, and AI/ML-driven decision-making targeting embedded Linux and RTOS
• Architect and implement fault-tolerant, redundant software systems that keep optical links alive across a constellation of satellites, including health monitoring and autonomous recovery without ground intervention
• Build and maintain robust test, validation, and simulation infrastructure, from hardware-in-the-loop testbeds and software-in-the-loop virtualizations to automated regression suites
• Own the full lifecycle of embedded software delivery — from requirements decomposition and architecture design through implementation, code review, integration, deployment, and long-term maintenance of software running on satellites in orbit
• Collaborate deeply with cross-functional teams spanning hardware, optics, systems, communications, and operations engineers to design, integrate, test, and deploy high-speed optical communication systems
• Drive continuous improvement of deployment and over-the-air (OTA) update processes, ensuring new capabilities and fixes can be safely and reliably delivered to hundreds of satellites on orbit with minimal operational risk
• Partner with software and hardware teams to lead board bring-up and integration efforts, including developing and debugging low-level BSP components, validating peripheral connectivity (Ethernet, PCIe, SPI, I2C, flash devices), and ensuring seamless hardware-software integration from prototype through production

Required qualifications

• 5+ years of non-internship professional software development experience
• 5+ years of programming with at least one software programming language experience
• 5+ years of leading design or architecture (design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems experience
• Experience as a mentor, tech lead or leading an engineering team
• 5+ years of experience with the Linux networking stack and/or consumer devices using embedded Linux, Yocto, and/or Real Time Operating Systems (RTOS)

Preferred qualifications

• Experience developing embedded software for space systems, including familiarity with optical communication systems, laser terminals, or high-speed serial interfaces
• Experience with ARM-based SoCs
• Experience with Linux system virtualization (QEMU/KVM)
• Experience with FPGA-adjacent software development, including register-level interfaces, DMA engines, or hardware/software co-design