Staff Engineer, Robot Platform

Here at The Exploration Company, we are building innovative aerospace technologies that advance the future of space transportation.

We are seeking a highly motivated
Senior Flight Software Engineer
to join our mission-driven team developing Nyx. In this role, you will take full ownership of key components of the flight software stack. You will be designing, implementing, and testing mission-critical systems that enable safe, autonomous, and reliable spaceflight operations.

You will work in a fast-paced, collaborative environment where cross-functional integration is essential. Your code will interface directly with vehicle avionics, guidance systems, propulsion, communications, and ground control. Expect to write modern, high-reliability C++ and Python code, drive software simulations, and ensure flight readiness through rigorous testing at both unit and system levels.

• Applications at all seniority levels are considered.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and own core flight software modules for spacecraft control, telemetry, data handling, fault management, and communications.
• Develop in modern C++ and Python for support tooling, following best practices in software architecture, testing, and performance optimization.
• Build and maintain test frameworks for automated unit, integration, and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing to validate software behavior across mission phases.
• Create and run high-fidelity simulations to model flight dynamics, subsystem interactions, and edge cases.
• Collaborate closely with GNC, avionics, propulsion, and mission operations teams to ensure seamless integration and mission success.
• Participate in code reviews, design reviews, and flight readiness assessments.

What we would love to see from you

• Strong proficiency in modern C++ (C++17 or newer) and Python.
• Experience with real-time systems, embedded development, or spacecraft software.
• Demonstrated ability to take ownership of complex technical problems and drive them to resolution.
• Familiarity with software testing methodologies and simulation tools.
• Excellent cross-disciplinary communication and collaboration skills.
• Good understanding of math & physics.
• Focus on detail, quality, and testing.
• Experience with CI/CD systems and build systems.

Nice to have

• Knowledge of safety critical and real-time critical software and familiarity with RTOS.
• Good understanding of communication protocols such as: TCP/IP, UART, CAN Bus and serialization.
• Experience with automotive or flight software frameworks.
• Background in orbital mechanics, spacecraft systems, or space mission lifecycle.
• Experience with industry standards such as AUTOSAR, ECSS, DO-178.

Why you should join us!
What makes us special here at The Exploration Company and why we think you will enjoy working here is:

• We’re Agile - we make decisions fast whilst keeping our goals and systems in mind
• We’re Open and Collaborative - we are transparent about risks and obstacles, so that we can cooperate to overcome them
• We have a lot of Fun - we refuel our energy knowing we are democratising space. It’s a wonderful and rare opportunity, are YOU up for the challenge?

We'd love to hear from you if you wish to be a part of our journey. Please submit your CV now for immediate consideration and we will be in touch shortly.

The Exploration Company is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability status. Relocation assistance is provided for those willing to relocate including visa sponsorship where applicable.
*All offers are contingent upon the successful completion of a background check, which will be subject to the country, role, and project you applied for. By submitting your application, you acknowledge and agree that any offer of employment may be conditional upon successful condition of this check. The Exploration Company partners with Zinc Work Limited located in the UK (Zinc), a third-party provider, to ensure this process as efficient and transparent as possible.

If applicable, you will receive an email from Zinc upon acceptance of your offer with a link to a secure portal where you can provide the required information to Zinc.*

At Corsearch, we are dedicated to creating a world where consumers can trust the choices they make.

As a global leader in Trademark and Brand Protection, we partner with businesses to safeguard their most valuable assets in an increasingly complex digital environment.

Our comprehensive solutions, powered by AI-driven data and deep analytics, enable brands to establish, monitor, and protect their presence against infringement and counterfeiting.

Why Choose Corsearch?

• Innovative Solutions: We combine cutting-edge technology with expert judgment to deliver market-leading services in trademark clearance, brand protection, and anti-counterfeiting.
• Global Impact: Trusted by over 5,000 customers worldwide, including 73 of Fortune's Top 100 companies, our work has a meaningful impact on businesses and consumers alike.
• Collaborative Culture: With a team of over 1,900 professionals across multiple global offices, you'll be joining an inclusive environment where diverse perspectives thrive.
• Mission-Driven Purpose: Our commitment to protecting consumers and their trust in brands drives everything we do, making Corsearch a force for good in the world.

✅The Role
As a Python Developer at Corsearch, you’ll play a crucial role in advancing our shared mission of protecting and enhancing the world’s most valuable brands. You will join our core Product & Engineering team to build and scale our market-leading SaaS platform—an AI-driven ecosystem designed to detect, track, and enforce against online counterfeiting, piracy, trademark infringement, and brand abuse at global scale.

Collaborating with Corsearch’s global team of software engineers, data scientists, and brand protection experts, you’ll help drive innovation in web data ingestion, automated content monitoring, and enforcement workflows, ensuring our enterprise clients stay ahead in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

✅Responsibilities And Duties

• Product & Feature Development: Design, build, and deploy new end-to-end features for our core brand protection SaaS platform based on customer needs and internal operator feedback.
• Performance & Query Optimization: Refactor existing codebases for efficiency, optimize complex SQL/PostgreSQL queries
• AI & Automation Workflow Integration: Partner with AI/ML engineers to integrate automated content moderation, image matching, and rule-based decision engines directly into client-facing applications.
• Engineering Excellence: Maintain high code quality through unit testing, code reviews, containerized local environments, and robust CI/CD pipelines.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with Product Managers, UX Designers, and QA engineers to translate complex business logic and brand protection requirements into clean technical solutions.

✅Essential

• Language Mastery: Strong, hands-on experience with Python (async frameworks, REST APIs, and backend system development).
• Database Management: Solid experience with relational databases and SQL (specifically PostgreSQL index tuning and query optimization).
• Communication Skills: Full professional English proficiency with strong verbal and written communication skills to collaborate effectively in an international team.
• Problem-Solving Mindset: Ability to troubleshoot complex bugs, optimize inefficient code paths, and work both independently and collaboratively.
• Cloud & DevOps Ecosystem: Hands-on experience with AWS, Docker, Terraform, or Github actions.

Corsearch is an equal opportunity and inclusive employer and does not tolerate discrimination of any kind. We are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace where all employees feel valued, respected, and supported. We welcome applications from all individuals regardless of race, nationality, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, disability, or any other protected characteristic. Together, we are working proactively to build a workplace where everyone can belong and be at their best selves. Together, we make an Impact.

Trusted by over 5,000 customers worldwide, Corsearch delivers AI-powered data, deep analytics, and professional services that support brands to market their assets, drive growth, and optimise brand presence against infringement.

Deine Aufgaben

Du bist überzeugt, dass innovative Technologie und Software gesellschaftlich relevante Themen unterstützt, verändert und vorantreibt? Das sind wir auch!
**Unsere Kund*innen sind vielfältig. Unsere Software Projekte ebenso.

Wir lassen die großen Visionen unserer Kund*innen Wirklichkeit werden und helfen ihnen dabei die Digitalisierung in Deutschland voranzutreiben. Dabei setzen wir auf unsere Begeisterung für Software-Engineering, Open Source und agiles Mindset.**

• Du denkst dich mit Begeisterung in die fachlichen Fragestellungen unserer Kund*innen ein und findest innovative Lösungen.
• Du konzipierst und implementierst gemeinsam mit deinen Teamkolleg*innen User Stories in Java.
• Du entwickelst automatisierte Tests, um die Qualität des Codes zu gewährleisten.
• Du führst Code Reviews im Team durch und arbeitest im Pair Programming, um die Qualität zu verbessern und Know-How zu verteilen.
• Du verwendest und optimierst die im Team etablierte Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery Pipeline.

Das bringst du mit

• Ein abgeschlossenes Studium oder eine vergleichbare Ausbildung im Bereich Informatik
• Gute Kenntnisse in der Entwicklung von Anwendungen mit Java unter Einsatz von aktuellen Frameworks wie Spring Boot, o.ä. und Werkzeugen wie Jenkins und GIT
• Erfahrung mit Kubernetes, Docker oder Podman in einer Cloud Umgebung sind wünschenswert
• Grundverständnis zum Thema Containerisierung sowie Interesse an DevOps
• Interesse am Einsatz von KI-Tools in der Softwareentwicklung und die Fähigkeit, diese gezielt und kritisch in den Entwicklungsalltag zu integrieren
• Lust auf agiles Arbeiten sowie Motivation dich kontinuierlich mit neuen Technologien und Trends auseinanderzusetzen
• Sehr gute Deutschkenntnisse (mind. C1)

Das bieten wir dir

• Du arbeitest mit namhaften Kund*innen an gesellschaftlich relevanten und innovativen Projekten.
• Du bist Teil eines selbstorganisierten Teams im agilen Umfeld mit hoher Eigenverantwortung.
• Durch das breite Technologiespektrum und die Vielfältigkeit unserer Projekte und Kund*innen hast du die Möglichkeit, dich stetig weiterzuentwickeln.
• Du trittst in ein wachsendes Unternehmen mit langfristiger Perspektive ein.
• Um optimale Arbeitsbedingungen zu ermöglichen, setzen wir uns für dich und deine Familie ein.
• Umfangreiche Benefits runden unser Angebot ab.

Kontakt

Andre Lämmlen
, HR Manager

karriere@seitenbau.com

Jonas Moser
, HR Manager

karriere@seitenbau.com

Marie Braun
, HR Manager

karriere@seitenbau.com

Über uns

SEITENBAU ist ein inhabergeführtes Unternehmen, das es seit 1996 gibt. Bei SEITENBAU arbeiten mehr als 300 kreative Köpfe an verschiedensten Softwarelösungen in Scrum Teams. Offene Kommunikation, vertrauensvolle Zusammenarbeit und eine gesunde Mischung aus Praxisbewährtem und cutting edge - das ist das Credo, nach dem wir erfolgreich und mit Spaß arbeiten. Falls du noch mehr über SEITENBAU erfahren möchtest - und das aus Mitarbeitersicht- besuch doch mal unsere kununu Seite.

We are building the world's decision infrastructure: the strategic twin of every industrial organization for complex combinatorial problems. We unlocked what wasn't possible before: mapping reality with its levers and constraints into a computer, then running n-dimensional optimization on critical value-chain decisions. We help Europe stay strong and the German Mittelstand make good decisions between market shifts, orders, machines and people.

Founded by Dana (CEO) and Erik (CTO) from RWTH research, backed by a €2.8M round led by Vorwerk Ventures, with customers live on our optimization models.

We move fast. We care. No patience for problems left unsolved.

Your mission
Hi, I'm Erik, CTO of Circonomit. This ad is specific on purpose: you should be able to tell from it whether this is your job.

We build decision infrastructure for industrial companies: our customers model their production, with its capacities, costs and constraints, and we compute the answer to "what should we do?" before the decision is made. Our engine turns that model into one artifact that both evaluates like a spreadsheet and optimizes like a solver. It sits between two worlds: the mathematics that makes the answer correct, and the product that has to make it usable by people who are not mathematicians.

That bridge is your mission. You work with our math and OR team to translate real customer problems into models, and you develop the engine that runs them.

We will not sugarcoat it: combinatorial search is unpredictable, customer data arrives messy, and some weeks a deadline sets the priority.

What You'll Own

• Customer models, end to end. Turn a planning problem, with its capacities, costs, lead times and shift plans, into a model whose answer a plant manager acts on. That includes the data it runs on: ERP and Excel exports, and catching the numbers that cannot be right before the customer does
• The interface between software and mathematics. Our engineers, and eventually our customers, build and extend models without needing us in the room. That means deciding where the abstraction belongs and what the modeling vocabulary has to cover, then building it and keeping it standing
• Answers people can act on. A planner watches the number improve, can defend it in a meeting weeks later, and still gets something usable when the honest answer is "impossible": which rules collide, and what it would cost to bend one
• Scale in both directions. A model that answers for one site still answers when it covers twelve, over more periods, against harder constraints. And a hundred customers solving at once, none of them noticing each other. How you get there is your call
• Your features from first line to production. Nobody hands you a ticket and waits

How We Work
Small team, short lines of communication, no layers. You own your work end to end: you build it, you ship it to production yourself, you run it.

Feedback runs both ways and continuously, in daily work and in weekly one-on-ones. We talk as equals, communicate proactively, and flag it early when something isn't working out. Saying no is part of the job.

We review each other's work, and we like being together in the Cologne office, because the fastest conversations still happen in a room. Modeling and engine work sit in the same person here by design.

Requirements

• You have modeled and shipped combinatorial optimization in industry (MILP, CP, or both), with models that survived messy data, deadlines and real users
• Algorithm design you have actually shipped: you know where methods and solvers reach their limits, CP-SAT and Gurobi included, and you can say which technique bought you what, from warm starts and rolling horizon to relax-and-fix, aggregation, matheuristics, or a plain heuristic when an exact solve is the wrong tool
• You have run optimization workloads where someone was waiting on the answer, not only in notebooks: cancellation, timeouts and parallel solves are problems you have already solved once
• Python at production quality: tests, types, review, and a profiler before an optimizer. You know how numerics go wrong where a model meets a solver: scaling, tolerances, integrality, and the moment money stops fitting in an integer
• You want to understand the customer's problem and their data, not only the model
• You have worked in a team, not mostly alone
• German at C1 or better, and fluent English. Team life runs in German; code and docs are English
• NRW-based (Cologne office), optionally Munich, Stuttgart, Berlin area or else willing to work hybrid. Open to find a way if we fit

Nice to have: solver internals

• performance work on numerical or compiled code
• DSL or compiler work
• production planning, supply chain or logistics domain knowledge

You are structured and biased for action, and you have shown you play to win wherever life has put you so far.

This role is not for you if you want research freedom over product deadlines, if you would rather rewrite an engine than measure it, if you want to work only inside your own abstraction, if the data work is someone else's job, or if you are waiting for the next task to be handed to you.

Benefits

• Impact. Your models decide how factories plan, on real industrial data, in a product people use daily, not a benchmark set. Customers measure in euros what your work changed, and they tell you
• Ownership. No approval chain that turns your decision into someone else's
• The people next to you. The math and OR team on the engine, and the CTO on the platform
• Feedback speed. You will know where you stand. We say things out loud, we adjust, and we expect the same from you
• High stakes. Competitive salary and relevant room in the equity package (VSOP) to match your contribution and your career development
• The basics. Hardware of your choice
• AI tooling budget
• sports membership
• Deutschland-Ticket

Process: a 20-minute first call with me; a technical conversation with me and someone from the math and OR team; a hands-on challenge of about three hours, followed by a 45-minute walkthrough where you explain your solution and the decisions behind it; then the team, online and then in person. Both sides decide. Two to three weeks end to end, and you hear back within days after each step. Before you decide, ask us to put you on a call with someone who will tell you the good, the bad and the ugly.

To apply: skip the cover letter. Tell us about a model you built that made it into production, and one modeling decision in it you would reverse today.

"Hustle the day, analyze at night, reinforce something outstanding." Period.