The Role
Develop backend services and software libraries for a satellite mission-planning platform. Design scalable systems and APIs, optimize multi-objective scheduling and capacity allocation, build tools for operators and sales, and support the pipeline from customer tasking plans to spacecraft execution. Collaborate across teams while solving complex performance, distributed systems, and mathematical optimization problems.
Summary Generated by Built In
Wanna join the adventure?
Loft Orbital is looking for a Backend Software Engineer to join the Mission Platform organization.
You'll work on a small and driven team, developing a brand new software product that optimizes tasking across a large heterogeneous constellation of multi-sensor satellites:
scale to fly 50+ satellites, serving 100,000s of customer tasking orders
design, build and optimize a brand new product from scratch
solve challenging problems across multiple domains:
Astrodynamics, satellite capacity modeling and simulation
Back-end/API performance
Low latency, high responsiveness system design
Mathematical optimization and scheduling problems
We're looking for someone with a solid background in software engineering, ideally with a proven track record of building systems from scratch and solving complex, system-level problems. The ideal candidate can operate independently in a fast-paced environment and challenge requirements.
About this role:
- Develop and improve a new software product that manages customer orders across a multi-sensor constellation of satellites
- Interface with teams to help design the customer-facing interfaces and the back-end pipeline that goes from a plan to onboard execution
- Build tools and services that help sales and operators understand current and future capacity, operational risks and opportunities for growth
- Solve complex multi-objective optimization problems that maximize collection capacity, balancing various (conflicting) customer constraints, and help define what “optimal” means
- Design systems of systems: decompose complex problems into well-bounded services with clear interfaces, and reason about how they interact, fail, and scale together
Must Haves:
- Bachelor's degree in Software Engineering, Physics/Astrodynamics, Mathematics or a related field
- 2+ years of experience with designing and developing software libraries and backend services, preferably in Python
- Proven track record of operating independently and solving complex problems
- Experience with system design
- Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, for technical and non-technical audiences
Nice to Haves:
- Master’s degree in Software Engineering, Physics/Astrodynamics, Mathematics or a related field
- 5+ years of experience designing and developing software libraries and backend services, preferably in Python
- Proficiency with Django/GraphQL stacks
- Hands-on experience operating spacecraft
- Experience with C++ / high-performance Python (vectorization, JIT compilation like Numba, GPU parallelization)
- Demonstrated practical experience building high-performance backend software applications and/or libraries
- Specialization in one of the following disciplines:
- Integer/linear/multi-objective optimization or other Operations Research style problems
- Back-end/API performance optimization
- Distributed systems
- Security
- Earth observation tasking
- High-performance computing
Some of Our Awesome Benefits:
- 100% company-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance option for employees and dependents
- 100% company-paid Basic Life (1x salary, up to $300K), AD&D, Short-Term, and Long-Term Disability insurance
- Health Savings Account (HSA) with an employer contribution, plus Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) and pre-tax commuter benefits
- Carrot Fertility, which provides comprehensive, inclusive fertility healthcare and family-forming benefits with financial support
- One Medical membership for telemedicine and primary care
- Free, confidential Employee Assistance Program through MetLife and TELUS Health
- Fully paid parental leave: 16 weeks for birthing parents and 10 weeks for non-birthing parents (including adoption and surrogacy), plus an optional 2-week part-time return
- Flexible Time Off policy for vacation and sick leave, and 12 paid holidays
- 401(k) plan and equity options
- Daily catered lunches and snacks in office
- International exposure to our team in France
- Annual company off-sites and many social events and celebrations
- Relocation assistance when applicable
*Research shows that while men apply to jobs where they meet an average of 60% of the criteria, women and other underrepresented people tend to only apply when they meet 100% of the qualifications. At Loft, we value respectful debate and people who aren’t afraid to challenge assumptions. We strongly encourage you to apply, even if you don’t check all the boxes.
Who We Are
Loft: Space Made Simple.
Founded in 2017, Loft provides governments, companies, and research institutions with a fast, reliable, and simple way to deploy missions in orbit.
We integrate, launch, and operate spacecraft, offering end-to-end missions as a service across Earth observation, IoT connectivity, on-orbit AI, national security missions, and more. Leveraging our existing space infrastructure and an extensive inventory of satellite buses, Loft is reducing years-long integration and launch timelines to months. With more than 30 missions flown, Loft’s flight heritage and proven technologies enable customers to focus on their mission objectives.
With a growing fleet on track to reach 30 satellites by 2027, we are scaling up quickly across our offices in San Francisco, CA | Golden, CO | and Toulouse, France to meet accelerating demand for space infrastructure.
As an international company your resume will be reviewed by people across our offices so please attach a copy in English.
Skills Required
- Bachelor's degree in Software Engineering, Physics, Astrodynamics, Mathematics, or a related field
- 2+ years of experience designing and developing software libraries and backend services, preferably in Python
- Proven ability to operate independently and solve complex problems
- Experience with system design
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills for technical and non-technical audiences
- Master's degree in Software Engineering, Physics, Astrodynamics, Mathematics, or a related field
- 5+ years of experience designing and developing software libraries and backend services, preferably in Python
- Proficiency with Django and GraphQL stacks
- Hands-on experience operating spacecraft
- Experience with C++ or high-performance Python, including vectorization, JIT compilation such as Numba, or GPU parallelization
- Practical experience building high-performance backend software applications or libraries
- Specialization in integer, linear, or multi-objective optimization; backend/API performance optimization; distributed systems; security; Earth observation tasking; or high-performance computing
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The Company
What We Do
Space Made Simple. We are a true end-to-end service provider letting our customers rapidly deploy and operate their payloads on reliable high-performance satellites at an unprecedented simplicity and affordability.
