As the Software Leader/Chief Engineer, you are the senior technical authority for software across Kepler’s programs and the point of technical accountability for the integrity and coherence of our flight and ground software as an integrated capability. You will provide cross-program technical leadership to ensure software is architected, developed, verified, and operated to standard. You set software technical direction, vision, and roadmap, own the reference architecture and software standards baseline, resolve the hardest cross-cutting technical problems, conduct rigorous technical reviews, and communicate clearly with engineering teams, systems and program leadership, customers, and partners.
This is a horizontal technical-authority role. You do not own program delivery, schedule, or line management, those remain with the program managers and software leads. You are the technical conscience that keeps the software portfolio coherent, sound, and mission-ready, and a force multiplier for the architects and leads already embedded on programs.
Primary Accountability
The Software Leader/Chief Engineer is accountable for the technical integrity and coherence of Kepler's software across programs. You are responsible for the soundness of software architecture, cross-program reuse and interface consistency, verification rigor, security, and the maturity of the software technical baseline. You balance capability, reliability, maintainability, schedule realism, and technical risk to ensure Kepler's software is delivered to standard and fit for purpose across every program and product line.
Authorities
- Establish the software technical direction, vision, and roadmap across programs, reviewed and approved with the Director of Software & Digital Design
- Own and approve the software architecture and standards baseline (KEDS, ECSS-E-ST-40 / Q-ST-80, NASA NRP 7150.2 heritage).
- Chair software technical decision boards, architecture reviews, and cross-program trade studies.
- Resolve cross-program and cross-discipline software technical disagreements.
- Require additional analysis, review, refactoring, or verification when software risk warrants.
- Assess software technical readiness at major program milestones (PDR, CDR, TRR-equivalent gates) and provide recommendations to the program execution team.
- Recommend acceptance of software technical risks, waivers, and deviations.
- Escalate software technical issues that threaten program or platform success.
Key Responsibilities:
Provide software technical leadership across flight software, built-in test, GNC software, onboard autonomy, edge/orbital compute, ground software, and the developer platform and SDK
Drive convergence toward a coherent, reusable software architecture across programs
Ensure software activities remain aligned with mission and platform objectives
Take on the highest-risk and hardest cross-cutting software problems and drive them to resolution
Identify and remove software technical roadblocks that span teams and programs
Ensure timely software technical decisions and clear technical accountability across programs
Lead deep software technical reviews across programs: architecture, interfaces, timing and real-time behavior, fault management, margins, and security
Challenge assumptions, designs, analyses, test evidence, and verification coverage
Lead software design reviews, anomaly investigations, and readiness reviews
Make timely, evidence-based software technical decisions
Balance capability, reliability, security, maintainability, schedule realism, and technical risk
Prevent teams from stalling on unresolved cross-cutting software issues
Communicate software technical direction clearly and consistently across the engineering organization
Translate complex software issues into concise recommendations for leadership
Represent software engineering in customer reviews, supplier and partner meetings, and governance boards
Ensure software decisions, assumptions, risks, and actions are clearly documented (KEDS) and communicated
Build alignment across Software, Systems, Program Management, Product Assurance, and leadership
Mentor software leads, architects, and senior engineers, and grow the next tier of technical leaders
Raise the standard of software technical rigor, review quality, and standards compliance
Drive reuse, platform standardization, tooling and CI/CD maturity, and lessons learned
Director of Software & Digital Design: joint review and approval of software technical direction, vision, and roadmap
Chief Engineer (Systems) and program Chief Engineers
Program Managers
Software Managers, Tech Leads, and Architects
Systems, GNC, and Payload Engineering
Software Product Assurance and Quality
Mission Operations
Customers, Suppliers, and Partners
Set and evolve technical strategy, including direction, vision, and roadmap, jointly with the Director of Software & Digital Design, while retaining decision authority for execution-level technical choices across programs
Software teams remain technically aligned across programs
Major cross-cutting software decisions are made on time
Software technical risks are understood before they become program risks
Software design reviews achieve high technical maturity
Reuse and architectural coherence increase measurably across programs
Leadership has confidence in the technical status of the software portfolio
Flight and ground software are delivered to standard and perform in orbit
Lead through technical credibility
Challenge assumptions constructively
Strengthen the program leads and architects rather than override them
Communicate clearly and decisively
Make sound decisions under uncertainty
Develop future technical leaders
Maintain unwavering technical integrity
Technical Leadership
Engineering Execution
Design Reviews & Technical Oversight
Decision Making
Communication & Alignment
Engineering Excellence
Key Interfaces
Decision Making
Measures of Success
Leadership Principles
Required Skills & Qualifications:
- 15+ years of progressive software engineering experience, including significant experience as a Chief Engineer, Software Architect, Distinguished Engineer, Technical Fellow, or equivalent senior technical authority
- Demonstrated success providing technical direction across a software organization of 50+ engineers, multiple programs, and several engineering disciplines
- Strong understanding of the complete software lifecycle: requirements, architecture, detailed design, implementation, integration, verification, validation, deployment, operations, maintenance, and anomaly resolution
- Experience mentoring senior engineers, architects, and technical leads and developing the next generation of technical leadership
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related discipline
- Demonstrated experience establishing and executing an AI strategy across software engineering and the broader organization
- Demonstrated success driving organizational change, building AI fluency, and encouraging adoption among engineers, technical leaders, and non-technical teams
Bonus Points:
- Direct experience developing flight software, spacecraft autonomy, GNC software, payload software, onboard or edge computing, and ground-segment systems
- Experience with spacecraft operations, on-orbit commissioning, anomaly resolution, or software updates to operational systems
- Familiarity with digital engineering, model-based systems engineering, requirements management, software product assurance, and formal verification methods
- Experience building common software platforms, SDKs, reusable services, and shared infrastructure across several products or programs
- Experience working within a scaling technology company where processes, architectures, and organizational structures are continuing to mature
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