Embedded Firmware Engineer – HUSKY Bus Platform
About Urban Sky: Urban Sky is a venture-backed aerospace startup that pioneers utilization of the stratosphere and reimagines the way humans view and analyze the earth. We design, build, operate, and sell stratospheric balloon systems, and the data we collect supports a wide range of applications, from real-time wildfire monitoring to urban mapping. Our technology is also employed by government customers including the Department of Defense (DoD), NASA, and others. Urban Sky sends flight vehicles to the stratosphere on a weekly basis. Our team consists of engineers, makers, developers, and doers who believe in the power of human potential when passion meets utility within a small, supportive team. At Urban Sky we strive to create a team culture grounded in candor, inclusion, respect and empowerment. We aim to build the next chapter of stratospheric history in Denver and are seeking self-starting, open-minded, and hard-working team members. About The Role: Urban Sky is seeking an Embedded Firmware Engineer to own the technical development and product evolution of our HUSKY bus platform – the backbone of our stratospheric flight systems. HUSKY provides integrated power distribution, Ethernet-based communications, and onboard compute for our balloon vehicles and customer payloads. This role sits at the intersection of firmware engineering, systems architecture, and product development. As the product lead for HUSKY, you will work closely with the portfolio manager to drive R&D iteration cycles from architecture through validation and handoff to manufacturing. You will also interface directly with defense customers, supporting integration, network accreditation, and cybersecurity compliance requirements. This is a senior, high-ownership role for an engineer who thrives in a vertically integrated startup where decisions at the firmware layer have direct consequences on flight safety, mission success, and customer outcomes. Key Responsibilities: HUSKY Bus Product Ownership Serve as the technical product lead for the HUSKY bus platform, owning the firmware architecture and driving iterative development cycles in collaboration with the portfolio manager Define firmware requirements with the portfolio manager, as informed by hardware trade studies, system-level constraints, and customer mission needs Lead design reviews, architecture decisions, and trade space analyses for new HUSKY revisions Manage the transition of validated designs from R&D into the manufacturing pipeline, ensuring design-for-manufacturability and documentation completeness Maintain version-controlled firmware baselines and establish robust release processes and configuration management practices Manage and develop firmware configuration tools to enable an automated customer interface Embedded Firmware Development Design, develop, and verify embedded firmware for real-time systems operating in the stratospheric environment, including power m...