At Vast, our mission is to contribute to a future where billions of people are living and thriving in space. We are building artificial gravity space stations, allowing long-term stays in space without the adverse effects of zero-gravity. Our initial crewed space habitat will be Haven-1, scheduled to be the world’s first commercial space station when it launches into low earth orbit in August 2025. Our team is all-in, committed to executing our mission safely and on time. If you want to work with the most talented people on Earth furthering space exploration for humanity, come join us.
Vast is looking for a Staff Software Engineer, iOS, reporting to the Director, Ground Segment & Mission Operations.
As an iOS software engineer you will be the responsible engineer for the design, build, and testing of iOS native applications written in Swift to power crew user interfaces operating in Low Earth Orbit aboard Haven-1. You will shepherd the project through the full Software Development Lifecycle as the original author of the app. In your day-to-day you will collaborate with the UX design, flight software, and avionics teams to ensure the app functions reliability and meets the required objectives. Join us for the unique opportunity to write apps that fly in space.
This will be a full-time, exempt position located in our Long Beach location.
Responsibilities:
- Develop new and optimize existing software codebases and systems which will be used to power crew devices on the Vast family of spacecraft
- Mentor junior software engineers to help build a strong and capable team
- Own the lifecycle of software, including rolling out to operations, managing configurations, maintaining and upgrading, and supporting end-users
- Configure and optimize automated testing and deployment systems
- Ensure software quality and reliability through testing, clean-code, and attention to software security
Minimum Qualifications:
- Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Informatics, Human-Centered Design & Engineering or other engineering discipline
- 7+ years experience writing software
- 4+ years experience writing iOS applications (Objective-C/C++ & Swift)
Preferred Skills & Experience:
- Experience writing applications shipped and used by millions of users
- Proficiency using the command line, writing shell scripts, and an understanding of the GNU/Linux operating system
- Experience coding in C and C++ and integrating that code into iOS applications
- Experience building applications in the cloud
- Enjoys end-user facing roles and interfacing with cross-functional teams
- Ability to work quickly and accurately in fast-paced environment during critical launch and mission operations
- Excellent communicator, both written and verbal
- Familiarity with Git
- Collaborative mindset
- Problem solver with a bias for action
Additional Requirements:
- Willingness to work overtime, or weekends to support critical mission milestones
Salary Range: California
$155,000—$235,000 USD
COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS
Base salary will vary depending on job-related knowledge, education, skills, experience, business needs, and market demand. Salary is just one component of our comprehensive compensation package. Full-time employees also receive company equity, as well as access to a full suite of compelling benefits and perks, including: 100% medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents, flexible paid time off for exempt staff and up to 15 days of vacation for non-exempt staff, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability insurance, life insurance, free catered meals and snacks and beverages, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, One Medical membership, ClassPass credits, personalized mental healthcare through Spring Health, and other discounts and perks.
U.S. EXPORT CONTROL COMPLIANCE STATUS
The person hired will have access to information and items subject to U.S. export controls, and therefore, must either be a “U.S. person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.62 or otherwise eligible for deemed export licensing. This status includes U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, lawful permanent residents (green card holders), and asylees and refugees with such status granted, not pending.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY
Vast is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Vast is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.
Top Skills
What We Do
Vast is developing artificial gravity space stations to expand humanity across the solar system.
Vast’s mission is to enable large populations of humans to live and work in space, permanently.
Our solar system has the resources and room for humanity to thrive and expand without destroying Earth’s biosphere. Unlocking these resources requires in-space infrastructure and industry at an unprecedented scale.
We are building a world-class team to engineer the human experience in space.
Why Work With Us
We're developing artificial gravity space stations to expand humanity across the solar system in order to enable large populations to live and work in space. Not only is what we're working on groundbreaking, but the team prides itself on living by our values of respect, curiosity, action, and excellence making it a lot more fun to achieve our goal.
Gallery
.png)
 (1).png)
