Backend Software Engineer - Mission Planning Strategy

The role

You will build a new software product from scratch that optimizes tasking across a constellation of multi-sensor satellites. You will work on backend services, APIs, and multi-objective optimization problems with a small team.

What you will do

• Develop and improve a new software product that manages customer orders across a multi-sensor satellite constellation
• Work with teams to design customer-facing interfaces and the back-end pipeline from plan to onboard execution
• Build tools and services that help sales and operators understand current and future capacity, operational risks and growth opportunities
• Solve multi-objective optimization problems that maximize collection capacity while balancing conflicting customer constraints
• Design systems of systems: decompose complex problems into well-bounded services with clear interfaces

Required qualifications

• 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 track record of operating independently and solving complex problems
• Experience with system design
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills for technical and non-technical audiences

Nice to have

• 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++ or high-performance Python (vectorization, Numba, GPU parallelization)
• Demonstrated practical experience building high-performance backend applications and/or libraries
• Specialization in optimization, back-end/API performance, distributed systems, security, Earth observation tasking, or high-performance computing

Benefits

• Equity
• Up to 35 days of paid time off (vacations and RTT) and flexible working hours
• Health and life insurance
• Lunch vouchers
• Cross-office travel opportunities between San Francisco, Colorado, and Toulouse
• Company and team off-sites and events
• Relocation assistance to Toulouse when applicable

Before you apply

• Submit your resume in English, as it will be reviewed by people across offices

About the company

Loft provides governments, companies, and research institutions a fast, simple way to deploy missions in orbit, including integration, launch, and operations. Founded in 2017, it has flown more than 30 missions and plans a fleet of 30 satellites by 2027.