Software Engineer II (Front-End) – Autonomy Mission Interface

Who We Are:

Eras of humanity can often be defined by a dominant transportation mode—horse-drawn chariots, ocean-going vessels, or aircraft. These transformations were led by small, dedicated teams expanding access to the world through technological breakthroughs. At Inversion, we are building the next such breakthrough: highly maneuverable reentry vehicles that can loiter in orbit and return to Earth with precision. Our goal is to redefine global access by making space part of the everyday transportation fabric.

About the Role:

As a Front-End Engineer focused on Autonomy Mission Interfaces, you will design, develop, and maintain user interfaces that allow mission designers, operators, and engineers to interact with our autonomy system. Your work will shape how high-level human intent is captured, visualized, modified, and converted into machine-executable behaviors. These interfaces must bridge complex backend autonomy logic and user-friendly workflows, enabling rapid validation, modification, and dispatch of missions to both simulators and real spacecraft.

This role is central to making autonomy accessible and operable at scale. You'll work closely with mission, simulation, and GNC teams to ensure tight feedback loops between user input, system validation, and mission execution.

What You’ll Do:

• Design and develop intuitive, performant, and flexible user interfaces that enable mission planning, validation, and interaction with live autonomy systems.
• Visualize autonomy constructs such as mission graphs, behavior trees, state transitions, and safety constraints in a way that is navigable and editable.
• Build tools that allow operators to modify mission objects, inspect validation results, and dispatch commands to simulators or spacecraft.
• Integrate with backend autonomy services that decompose mission intent, evaluate constraints, and update internal state in real time.
• Develop front-end patterns and components that can be reused across multiple autonomy-related workflows.
• Work collaboratively with autonomy and backend engineers to ensure seamless data exchange and coherent user experience.
• Contribute to design reviews and usability testing to refine features based on operator needs and mission complexity.

Required Qualifications:

• 3+ years of professional experience in front-end or full-stack development.
• Deep expertise in HTML, CSS, and modern front-end frameworks (React preferred).
• Experience with data-driven UIs that allow for real-time updates, graph-based visualizations, or structured user input.
• Experience integrating with REST, WebSocket, or gRPC APIs.
• Comfort working in a Linux-based environment and with Git-based workflows.
• Experience designing interfaces for technical users (e.g., engineers, operators, analysts).
• Strong communication skills and an ability to collaborate across teams with different technical backgrounds.
• Ability to manage complexity and keep user workflows streamlined and robust.

Desired Qualifications:

• Experience with component libraries and design systems (Tailwind CSS, Shadcn UI, Radix UI, etc.).
• Familiarity with tools for graph visualization, mission planning, or system modeling (e.g., Cytoscape, D3.js, custom DAG/behavior tree tools).
• Understanding of autonomy systems, robotics, or mission operations workflows.
• Experience with state synchronization and visual debugging tools for real-time systems.
• Familiarity with containerization tools like Docker and deployment workflows.
• Experience working in a safety-critical or operational environment is a plus.

Why Join Us:

• Build the primary interface between humans and a globally distributed autonomy system.
• Shape how space logistics missions are designed, modified, validated, and dispatched.
• Join a multidisciplinary, high-velocity team working at the cutting edge of aerospace and autonomy.
• Work in an environment that values design clarity, thoughtful engineering, and operator empathy.
• Grow alongside world-class engineers while directly contributing to a new mode of global transportation.

Our office headquarters is located in Playa Vista, CA. This position requires in office presence.

The California annual base salary for this role is currently $110,000 - $126,000.  Pay Grades are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data.  Individual pay will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: interviews and an assessment of several factors that are unique to each candidate, job-related skills, relevant education and experience, certifications, abilities of the candidate and internal equity.