Backend Software Engineer - Mission Planning Strategy

Loft Orbital is hiring a Backend Software Engineer - Mission Planning Strategy in San Francisco, United States. It pays $150k-$195k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Loft Orbital.

Level's read on this job

Level rates this software engineer role Little AI ●○○○: aI is not part of the work.
Level classes it as a senior role.
Loft Orbital has 77 other open roles on Level.
Posted in the last few days.

AI in this role

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
Flexible Spending (FSA) and Health Savings (HSA) Accounts offered with an employer contribution to the HSA
100% employer paid Life, AD&D, Short-Term, and Long-Term Disability insurance
Flexible Time Off policy for vacation and sick leave, and 12 paid holidays
401(k) plan and equity options
Daily catered lunches and snacks
International exposure to our team in France
Fully paid parental leave; 14 weeks for primary caregiver and 10 weeks for secondary caregiver
Carrot Fertility provides comprehensive, inclusive fertility healthcare and family-forming benefits with financial support
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.

How we rate this

Backend Software Engineer - Mission Planning Strategy at Loft Orbital rates 27 out of 100 for how much of the daily work is AI. That makes it Little AI (AI Level 1 of 4). The level is about AI in the job, not seniority.

Classification

Little AI. AI is not part of the work.

●●●● Builds AI80 to 100
●●●○ Works on AI60 to 79
●●○○ Uses AI40 to 59
●○○○ Little AI0 to 39

Levels come from how often the tools, models and workflows of the role are named in the posting itself. Read the description and count the AI tools, models and workflows it names.

Key facts

Backend Software Engineer - Mission Planning Strategy is an open job at Loft Orbital.
Level rates this role AI Level 1 of 4: Little AI.
The listed salary is $150k-$195k a year.
The role is based in San Francisco, CA.
The job was posted on November 9, 2026.
Seniority: senior.
Applications are handled by Loft Orbital. Apply on Loft Orbital