Satellite Backend Engineer for Mission Ops

Loftorbital; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Loft Orbital is seeking a Backend Engineer to join our Mission Operations Services (MOS) team. You’ll build and scale backend services that let Loft operators and customers command, monitor, and automate our satellite fleet through Cockpit, our mission control system.

This hands-on role involves working across multiple satellite platforms and collaborating closely with backend, flight software, embedded systems, test, and space infrastructure teams to deploy reliable end-to-end services.

Qualifications

• Backend development experience in production environments.
• Solid Python development experience in production.
• Experience with Docker and container-based development.
• Hands-on experience with backend web development frameworks (Django/Flask/FastAPI).
• Proven API design skills (HTTP/GraphQL/REST).
• Experience with Django and/or GraphQL.
• Strong database fundamentals (Postgres/time-series).
• Exposure to Kubernetes in production.
• Background in distributed or real-time systems.

Responsibilities

• Design and build backend tools for operations: services that power passes, autopilots, activities, and day-to-day satellite operations.
• Handle commands and telemetry across multiple satellite buses and ground segment providers with a focus on safety and observability.
• Write production backend code in Python, owning services end-to-end from design to deployment and maintenance.
• Collaborate with flight software, embedded software, integration and test, and space infrastructure teams to integrate new satellite buses and capabilities into Cockpit.
• Support internal users of Cockpit by improving APIs, workflows, and debugging tools.
• Participate in spacecraft operations through SatDevOps rotations and assist real-time incident response when needed.

Skills

Backend development

Python

API design

Distributed systems

SatDevOps familiarity

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Django

Flask

FastAPI

GraphQL

PostgreSQL

InfluxDB/TimescaleDB

Job description

Loft Orbital is seeking a Backend Engineer to join our Mission Operations Services (MOS) team. You’ll build and scale backend services that let Loft operators and customers command, monitor, and automate our satellite fleet through Cockpit, our mission control system.

This hands-on role involves working across multiple satellite platforms and collaborating closely with backend, flight software, embedded systems, test, and space infrastructure teams to deploy reliable end-to-end services.