Onboard Software Engineer - Core Services

Loft Orbital; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 205,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

100% company-paid medical, dental, and

Vision insurance

401(k) plan and equity options

Daily catered lunches and snacks

Relocation assistance when applicable

Job summary

Loft Orbital in San Francisco is seeking engineers for its Onboard Software group to own features end-to-end, from concept to delivery, with emphasis on robustness and reliability. You will review code, enforce standards, and implement unit tests while working with Git, CI/CD, and build systems.

You will contribute to onboard software architecture and coordinate releases with downstream teams, with opportunities to participate in operating our satellite fleet.

Qualifications

• 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.

Responsibilities

• 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.

Skills

C/C++ (C++11+)

Python

Git

CI/CD

Make/CMake

Distributed architecture

Networking (UDP/TCP/IP)

Multithreading

Go/Rust familiarity

Tools

Docker

K3S

systemd-nspawn

Yocto

Go

Rust

Job description

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.

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

$140,000 - $205,000 a year

State law requires us to tell you the base compensation range for this role, which is $140,000- $205,000 per year. This is determined by your education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities. The salary range for this role is intentionally wide as we evaluate individuals based on their unique experience and abilities to fit our needs. Most importantly, we are excited to meet you, and see if you are a great fit for our team. What we can't quantify for you are the exciting challenges, supportive team, and amazing culture we enjoy.

* 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.

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.