About the Role
About Castelion
Castelion is bringing a new approach to defense development and production: one that focuses on short, iterative design cycles, rapid flight testing in development, and modern commercial manufacturing strategies for production at scale. We're designing, building, and testing next generation long range strike weapons systems to give America and its Allies a definitive edge and deter future conflicts.
Senior Embedded Software Engineer
Castelion is seeking a Senior Embedded Software Engineer to architect, implement, and harden software running on resource constrained, mission critical systems. You'll write low-level C and Rust, accelerate workloads with CUDA, and own secure processing paths (crypto, secure boot, key management) from concept through field test. You'll collaborate closely with electrical, systems, and test teams to bring new hardware online fast and keep it reliable.
Responsibilities
Embedded & Firmware Development
- Design and implement embedded applications, device drivers, and board support packages in C and Rust.
- Optimize and parallelize compute-intensive algorithms using CUDA on embedded GPUs.
- Bring up new boards: bootloaders, secure boot chains, peripheral initialization, and diagnostics.
- Implement and validate cryptographic protection using TPMs.
Systems Integration & Testing
- Integrate sensors, comms links, and high-rate data paths, profile and tune for latency and throughput.
- Develop automated HW-in-the-loop tests; script board flashing, provisioning, and regression suites.
- Use JTAG, logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, and trace tools to debug hard problems.
Monitoring & Telemetry
- Instrument systems for performance and reliability; feed data to Grafana/Foxglove for analysis.
Collaboration & Troubleshooting
- Partner with cross functional teams to isolate issues quickly in lab and field environments.
- Document designs, decisions, and interfaces clearly for internal and external stakeholders.
Basic Requirements
- Bachelors in Computer Science, Electrical/Computer Engineering, or related field.
- 5+ years professional embedded software experience (bare metal and/or RTOS).
- Strong proficiency in C and production Rust (unsafe code discipline, ownership semantics).
- Hands-on CUDA development on embedded or edge-class GPUs (Jetson, similar).
- Experience with ARM-based SoCs, memory-mapped I/O, DMA, interrupts, IPC.
- Proven work on secure boot, cryptography libraries, key management, or similar security-critical code.
- Comfortable with Linux internals, cross-compilers, build systems, and hardware debugging tools.
- Solid Git/GitHub workflows and familiarity with modern CI/CD.
Preferred Skills And Experience
- Experience with Zephyr, FreeRTOS, or seL4;
- Knowledge of DSP, real-time networking, or RF signal chains.
- Azure or other cloud services for telemetry ingestion.
- US Citizenship and ability to potentially obtain/maintain security clearance.
Leadership Qualities
- Bias to Action and Creative Problem Solving. Desire and experience questioning assumptions in ways that lead to break through ideas that are ultimately implemented. Successfully bring in applicable processes/concepts/materials from other industries to achieve efficiency gains. The ability to personally resolve minor issues in development without requiring significant support.
- High Commitment, High Initiative. A successful candidate will have a genuine passion for Castelion's mission and consistently look for ways to contribute to the company's technical goals and prevent hardware blockers. Ability to work in a fast paced, autonomously driven, and demanding atmosphere. Strong sense of accountability and integrity.
- Clear Communicator. Proactively communicates blockers. Trusted in previous roles to be voice of company with regulators, suppliers, gate keepers and customers. Capable of tactfully managing relationships with stakeholders to achieve company-desired outcomes without compromising relationships.
Requirements
Embedded software experience
5+ years of professional experience in embedded software development.
Proficiency in C and Rust
Strong skills in low-level programming with C and production Rust.
CUDA development
Hands-on experience with CUDA on embedded or edge-class GPUs.
Secure boot and cryptography
Experience with secure boot processes and cryptographic libraries.
Linux internals
Comfortable working with Linux internals and hardware debugging tools.
Nice to Have
Familiarity with Zephyr, FreeRTOS, or seL4 is a plus.
Understanding of DSP, real-time networking, or RF signal chains.
Experience with Azure or other cloud services for telemetry.
Benefits
Competitive salary
Offers a competitive salary based on experience.
Health insurance
Comprehensive health insurance coverage.
Retirement plan
401(k) retirement plan with company matching.