Onboard Software Engineer - Core Services

Loft Orbital is hiring an Onboard Software Engineer - Core Services. It pays $140k-$205k a year and Level rates it ; you can apply on Loft Orbital.

Level's read on this job

Little AI ●○○○ is how Level rates this software engineer role: aI is not part of the work.
Level classifies it as a mid-level role.
Level lists 77 other open roles at Loft Orbital.

AI in this role

Wanna join the adventure?
Loft’s Onboard Software group provides the on-orbit software that powers our core products. This is responsible for monitoring and control of major space program elements, including:

Flight Products computational environments (including physical and virtual processors);
Interfaces with external equipment (imagers, RF, ISL); and
Interfaces with the spacecraft bus.

The Core Services team is responsible for high-level vehicle services and functions, including file transfer, time synchronization, automation, scheduling, attitude control, and navigation. Many of these services are reused across all satellite programs and form the foundation of our onboard architecture.

We’re hiring for one position across multiple locations - you only need to apply once.

About this role:

Design, implement, and refine software with a high degree of ownership, driving impactful features from concept through delivery while ensuring robustness and reliability.
Review code, provide clear feedback, and enforce adherence to established development processes, style guides, and design standards to maintain consistency and quality across the codebase.
Design and implement unit tests for both self-authored and peer-authored code.
Utilize version control systems to create feature branches, push code, and merge approved code into production branches.
Contribute to the onboard software architecture through design proposals and collaborative review
Participate in the review and enhancement of software development processes and design standards.
Coordinate with downstream teams on the release, distribution and adoption of latest releases.
In addition to responsibilities within onboard software, you’ll have the opportunity to directly be involved in operating our on-orbit fleet of satellites.

Must Haves:

2+ years software engineering experience, using programming languages including C/C++ (C++11 or newer) and Python.
Experience with version control systems such as Git
Experience with continuous integration tools (e.g., GitLab-CI, Jenkins).
Experience with build systems (e.g., Make, CMake).
Understanding of distributed architecture.
Familiarity with networking protocols (e.g., UDP, TCP, IP) and POSIX standards.
Experience in developing multi-threaded applications.

Nice to Haves:

Familiarity with additional programming languages, such as Go or Rust.
Experience with embedded Linux operation, including Yocto, device trees, systemd, and Linux on ARM platforms.
Proficiency with unit test frameworks (e.g., pytest, Googletest, Unity) and keyword-driven test frameworks (e.g., Robot, Cucumber).
Experience with middleware framework (gRPC, ZMQ/NATS, etc.)
Experience with containerization technologies (Docker, K3S, systemd-nspawn)

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

Onboard Software Engineer - Core Services at Loft Orbital rates 36 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.