Senior Software Engineer - Ground & Mission Systems

The role

This person will lead ground segment software architecture and full software development lifecycle execution for ground and mission systems. They will support the development of space-to-space power beaming spacecraft and the Star Catcher Network.

What you will do

• Lead ground segment software architecture and co-own flight/ground interfaces.
• Lead full software development lifecycle execution for ground and mission systems.
• Architect real-time and near-real-time telemetry ingestion, processing, and storage pipelines.
• Define command planning, sequencing, and validation workflows.
• Define interfaces between ground tooling and spacecraft systems.
• Set standards for ground software architecture, APIs, service-oriented design, and CI/CD practices.
• Establish observability practices for ground and mission systems.
• Mentor ground/mission systems engineers and lead design reviews.
• Support internal software architecture and code quality practices.

Required qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• 10+ years of professional experience building production software systems.
• Demonstrated experience owning system architecture.
• Proficiency in one or more of Python, C++, Go, or similar languages.
• Experience with databases (relational and time-series), REST/gRPC APIs, and service-oriented/microservices architecture.
• Experience with distributed systems design, software/computer architecture, and structured workflow tools.
• Experience with telemetry and command processing standards (e.g., CCSDS, XTCE, or similar).
• Experience with real-time data streaming (e.g., message queues or pub/sub systems such as Kafka, RabbitMQ, ZeroMQ).
• Experience with containerization and orchestration (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes).
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code for deployment of ground software.
• Experience with observability tooling (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, ELK/OpenSearch).
• Working knowledge of cloud infrastructure (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure, or GovCloud equivalents) and CI/CD pipelines.

Nice to have

• Experience with mission operations, ground segment, or telemetry/command systems for spacecraft or other real-time platforms.
• Experience integrating software with hardware test benches or lab equipment.
• Experience with network storage systems, Gigabit Ethernet, or InfiniBand.
• Working knowledge of authentication and access-control schemes (e.g., RADIUS, LDAP).
• Experience with embedded security and encryption for data and command protection.
• DevSecOps and test automation experience using Python or similar languages.
• Familiarity with Linux development environments and tooling.
• Experience in a fast-paced startup or early-stage engineering environment.
• Experience mentoring engineers or establishing team-wide software standards.

Benefits

• Medical coverage
• Dental coverage
• Vision coverage
• 401(k) retirement plan
• Life insurance
• Paid parental leave

Before you apply

• All offers are contingent upon results of a thorough background check.
• Must be able to provide proof of eligibility to work in the US.
• Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of St

About the company

Star Catcher is building the first energy grid in space to power the orbital economy. They are building technology to wirelessly beam energy to spacecraft's existing solar panels.