Head of Software — Space Infrastructure & Platform Lead

Northwoodspace; Torrance (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

Northwood Space in Torrance, CA, seeks a Head of Software to drive the company's digital roadmap and own core backend software, infrastructure, and ground systems. This hands-on leadership role sets technical direction while delivering mission-critical systems on aggressive timelines.

You will mentor a growing software team across backend and infrastructure, plan cross-functional projects with hardware and operations teams, and build engineering foundations including tooling, CI/CD, deployment,

Qualifications

• 7–10+ years of professional software engineering experience with ownership of production systems.
• Experience leading teams and delivering mission-critical software.
• Strong background in backend systems and infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• Own the architecture and technical direction of core software stack, infrastructure and networking.
• Plan and execute cross-functional software projects with hardware and operations teams.
• Lead and grow a software team across backend and infrastructure domains.
• Build and maintain engineering foundations, including tooling, CI/CD, deployment, and operations.
• Ensure systems are scalable, reliable, secure, and observable in production.
• Stay hands-on to design, debug, and deliver critical systems.

Skills

Leadership

Backend systems

Distributed systems

Linux internals

Networking

C/C++

Rust

Embedded engineering

Job description

Northwood Space in Torrance, CA, seeks a Head of Software to drive the company's digital roadmap and own core backend software, infrastructure, and ground systems. This hands-on leadership role sets technical direction while delivering mission-critical systems on aggressive timelines.

You will mentor a growing software team across backend and infrastructure, plan cross-functional projects with hardware and operations teams, and build engineering foundations including tooling, CI/CD, deployment,