Senior Cloud Infra Engineer - SatDevOps for Space Missions

Loft Orbital; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance

Equity options

Health insurance

Parental leave

Lunch provided

Job summary

Loft Orbital is hiring a Senior Cloud Infrastructure Engineer to maintain and scale our ground segment infrastructure. You’ll work across development, operations, and IT to ensure reliable cloud-based services for space operations on Earth and in orbit.

This role emphasizes SatDevOps, automation, and strong collaboration in a fast-paced, innovative environment. You’ll help evolve CI/CD, IaC, and observability, with Grafana/Prometheus experience valued.

Qualifications

• Strong experience with public cloud infrastructure (GCP preferred).
• Deep expertise in Kubernetes (architecture, deployment, ops, optimization).
• Ability to design and build scalable, highly available systems.
• Familiarity with SDN concepts and tools.
• Experience with observability stacks (Grafana, Prometheus, Loki).
• Proficiency in at least one backend language (Go, Python, Rust, C/C++, Java).
• Hands-on DevOps: CI/CD, IaC, automation.
• Proven track record in fast-paced, high-growth environments.
• Excellent problem-solving skills and proactive mindset.
• Strong communication in a multicultural, cross-functional team.
• Master’s degree in CS or related field.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with developers and satellite operators to foster a SatDevOps culture.
• Design, implement, and maintain scalable, reliable, and secure infrastructure in a hybrid cloud.
• Improve developer experience with better tools, workflows, and environments.
• Lead automation of systems, including CI/CD pipelines, IaC, and deployment workflows.
• Own and evolve observability stack (metrics, tracing, logs). Grafana-centric ecosystems are a plus.
• Implement and advocate for best practices in reliability, fault tolerance, and performance tuning.
• Proactively identify, investigate, and resolve system reliability issues with root-cause analyses.
• Partner with teams to design and operate Software Defined Networking (SDN) solutions.
• Contribute to a collaborative and inclusive team culture.

Skills

Public cloud infrastructure

Kubernetes

Design scalable systems

DevOps practices

CI/CD

Infrastructure as code (IaC)

Observability stacks

Backend languages (Go, Python, Rust, C

Education

Master’s degree in Computer Science or equivalent

Tools

Grafana

Prometheus

Loki

ArgoCD

FluxCD

Job description

Wanna join the adventure?

Loft Orbital is revolutionizing access to space by building reliable, shareable satellites that drastically reduce the time and complexity traditionally required to get to orbit. We operate satellites, fly customer payloads, and handle entire missions from end-to-end. We’re a close-knit team of space enthusiasts, software experts, and cutting-edge technologists, all working together to make space simple for our customers.

As a Senior Cloud Infrastructure Engineer on our Cloud Infrastructure Team, you’ll play a pivotal role in maintaining and scaling our ground segment infrastructure. You’ll collaborate across development, operations, and IT to ensure the integration, delivery, and reliability of services that support our space operations on Earth and in orbit.

This is an exciting opportunity to work on cutting-edge technology and help build modern automated space infrastructure. This is not your typical SRE role, we apply DevOps principles even to spacecraft control. Yes, we call it SatDevOps, and we’ll train you to operate our satellites!

About the Role:

• Collaborate with developers and satellite operators to foster a strong SatDevOps culture.
• Design, implement, and maintain scalable, reliable, and secure infrastructure in a hybrid cloud environment.
• Improve our developer experience by building better tools, workflows, and environments.
• Lead efforts to automate and optimize systems, including CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure provisioning (IaC), and deployment workflows.
• Own and evolve our observability stack (metrics, tracing, logs) to improve usability and performance. Grafana-centric ecosystems are a plus.
• Implement and advocate for best practices in software reliability, fault tolerance, and performance tuning.
• Proactively identify, investigate, and resolve system reliability issues, performing root cause analyses and implementing long-term fixes.
• Partner with teams to design and operate Software Defined Network (SDN) solutions.
• Contribute to a collaborative and inclusive team culture where respectful debate and continuous learning are celebrated.

Must Haves:

• Strong experience with public cloud infrastructure, ideally GCP.
• Deep expertise in Kubernetes, architecture, deployment, ops, and resource optimization.
• Demonstrated ability to design and build scalable, highly available systems.
• Familiarity with Software Defined Networking (SDN) concepts and tools.
• Experience implementing and maintaining observability stacks (Grafana, Prometheus, Loki, etc.).
• Proficiency in at least one backend language: Go, Python, Rust, C/C++, or Java.
• Deep understanding and hands-on experience with DevOps practices: CI/CD, infrastructure as code (IaC), and automation.
• Proven track record of working in fast-paced, high-growth technical environments.
• Excellent problem-solving skills and ability to operate independently with a proactive, results-driven mindset.
• Strong communication skills; thrives in a multicultural, cross-functional team.

Nice to Haves:

• Hands-on experience with GitOps frameworks (ArgoCD, FluxCD).
• Interest or experience in FinOps and cost-optimized architectures.
• Understanding of orchestration in resource-constrained environments, like space systems.
• Knowledge of systems engineering tools and SDLC governance.
• Familiarity with security practices, vulnerability scanning, threat detection, risk mitigation.
• Master’s degree in Computer Science or a similar field

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 in office
• International exposure to our team in France
• Fully paid parental leave; 14 weeks for birthing parent and 10 weeks for non-birthing parent
• 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.

180000 - 240000 USD a year

State law requires us to tell you the base compensation range for this role, which is $180,000- $240,000 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.