Senior Application Data Engineer

K2 Space; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 160,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity in company

Paid time off

Medical/dental/vision coverage

Life insurance

Paid parental leave

Job summary

K2 Space in Los Angeles is seeking a Data Engineer to help design, implement, and scale the data backbone powering satellite design, manufacturing, and operations.

You will own data models, ETL, and data pipelines, collaborate with cross-functional teams, and drive data integrity and performance across enterprise systems.

This role offers a competitive base salary, equity, and comprehensive benefits as part of a fast-growing Series C space startup.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information technology, mathematics or a STEM discipline or 12+ years of professional software engineering experience.
• Strong working experience with data modeling, including schema design.
• Strong working experience with data migration processes, including normalization, mapping, ETL, real-time replication.

Responsibilities

• Develop highly reliable data solutions used across K2 Space — from factory floors to mission control.
• Create and evolve data design that improves how we design, build, and operate spacecraft.
• Partner with engineers, business partners, and leaders to understand challenges and design efficient solutions.
• Own data solutions from concept to full fledged product.
• Lead data architecture designs and drive data optimization while ensuring data integrity and accuracy.
• Evaluate and decide among competing data design tradeoffs.
• Advocate for and convert other engineering leaders to your solutions.
• Use data to prioritize work and maximize impact.
• Mentor staff and help build strong engineering culture.

Skills

Data modeling

Schema design

Data migration

REST API

Data pipelines

Data architecture

Data integrity

Team collaboration

CI/CD

Education

Bachelor’s degree or 12+ years experience

Tools

MS SQL

PostgreSQL

Snowflake

AWS RDS

AWS PostgreSQL

Docker

Kubernetes

DynamoDB

MongoDB

Job description

K2 is building the largest and highest-power satellites ever flown, unlocking performance levels previously out of reach across every orbit. Backed by $450M from leading investors including Altimeter Capital, Redpoint Ventures, T. Rowe Price, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Alpine Space Ventures, and others – with an additional $500M in signed contracts across commercial and U.S. government customers – we’re mass-producing the highest-power satellite platforms ever built for missions from LEO to deep space.

The rise of heavy-lift launch vehicles is shifting the industry from an era of mass constraint to one of mass abundance, and we believe this new era demands a fundamentally different class of spacecraft. Engineered to survive the harshest radiation environments and to fully capitalize on today’s and tomorrow’s massive rockets, K2 satellites deliver unmatched capability at constellation scale and across multiple orbits.

With multiple launches planned through 2026 and 2027, we're Building Bigger to develop the solar system and become a Kardashev Type II (K2) civilization. If you are a motivated individual who thrives in a fast-paced environment and you’re excited about contributing to the success of a groundbreaking Series C space startup, we’d love for you to apply.

The Role

Our enterprise software team builds the digital backbone that powers K2 Space’s satellite design, manufacturing, and mission operations. We develop tools that connect engineering, production, and mission control into a seamless ecosystem — enabling our hardware to get from concept to orbit faster than ever before.

We’re looking for engineers who are curious, collaborative, and driven to deliver mission-critical software that helps turn ambitious space projects into reality.

Responsibilities

• Develop highly reliable data solutions used across K2 Space — from factory floors to mission control.
• Create and evolve data design that improve how we design, build, and operate our spacecraft.
• Partner closely with engineers, business partners, and leaders across disciplines to understand their challenges and design efficient solutions.
• Own data solutions from concept to full fledged product.
• Lead data architecture designs, drive data optimization, ensure data integrity and accuracy.
• Evaluate and make decisions regarding competing data design tradeoffs.
• Advocate, defend and convert other engineering leaders to your own solutions.
• Use data to drive prioritization of work and design of solutions to create the largest positive impact.
• Actively contribute to building a culture of transparency, empathy, integrity, and engineering excellence.
• Actively mentoring other staff members and help team members build good culture and engineering practices.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information technology, mathematics or a STEM discipline or 12+ years of professional experience in software engineering.
• Strong working experience with data modeling, including schema design such as entities, relationships, data constraints
• Strong working experience with data migration process, including data normalization, schema mapping, data serialization, data pipeline, ETL, real-time or near real-time data replication, data mirroring.
• 8+ years of in-depth experience with structure databases such as MS SQL, PostgreSQL, Snowflake.
• 5+ years of in-depth experience with hosted database solutions such as AWS RDS, AWS PostgreSQL.
• 3+ years of working experience with CI/CD deployment.
• Working experience with Docker.
• Working experience with Kubernetes (prefer AWS EKS).
• 3+ years of experience with unstructured database such as NoSQL, Amazon DynamoDB, MongoDB or similar.
• Working experience with REST API.

Nice to Have

• Experience with distributed data designs such as caching, sharding, data validation.
• Experience with public cloud data warehouse solution.
• Experience with data designs for physical product manufacturing.
• Strong working experience with data analytic such as AWS Redshift.

Compensation and Benefits

• Base salary range for this role is $160,000 – $200,000 + equity in the company.
• Salary will be based on several factors including, but not limited to: knowledge and skills, education, and experience level.
• Comprehensive benefits package including paid time off, medical/dental/vision/ coverage, life insurance, paid parental leave, and many other perks.

Export Compliance

As defined in the ITAR, “U.S. Persons” include U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents (i.e., Green Card holders), and certain protected individuals (e.g., refugees/asylees, American Samoans). Please consult with a knowledgeable advisor if you are unsure whether you are a “U.S. Person.”

The person hired for this role will have access to information and items controlled by U.S. export control regulations, including the export control regulations outlined in the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR). The person hired for this role must therefore either be a “U.S. person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15 or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export control license.

K2 Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with K2 Space is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.