Senior Earth Observation Engineer: Image Quality Lead

Loft Orbital; Golden (CO); On-site; USD 140,000 - 195,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision insurance

Flexible Spending Accounts

Life & Disability Insurance

Flexible Time Off

401(k) and equity

Lunches in office

Relocation assistance

Global team exposure

Parental leave

Fertility benefits

Off-sites & events

Job summary

Loft Orbital is hiring a Senior Earth Observation Engineer to act as the technical authority for optical payloads, image quality, and mission performance. You will work with mission teams, customers, and payload suppliers to define requirements, drive development, and support calibration, processing, and delivery of imagery.

You will shape on-ground and in-orbit test strategies, contribute to data processing architectures, and help Loft scale its Earth observation offerings across multiple

Qualifications

• 5+ years as a space systems engineer on Earth observation missions.
• Strong experience with image quality metrics and imagery calibration (geometric, radiometric, spectral).
• Experience with optical payloads and mission test activities.
• Proficient in Python (1+ year).
• Excellent communication and organizational skills.
• Comfort with fast-paced development and hands-on work.
• Willingness to travel and collaborate with suppliers and customers.

Responsibilities

• Derive mission and payload requirements with customers and flow them to software/hardware teams.
• Oversee optical payload suppliers' development and test activities.
• Develop on-ground and in-orbit test and calibration strategies with AIT/OPS teams.
• Define onboard and ground data processing strategies.
• Support CONOPS development and business development for optical payload missions.
• Participate in integration, test campaigns, launch, and in-orbit commissioning.
• Contribute to Loft's Earth observation roadmap.

Skills

Space systems engineer

Image quality metrics

Imagery calibration

Optical payloads

Python

Communication skills

Organizational skills

Hands-on work

Fast-paced environment

Tools

Python

Job description

Loft Orbital is hiring a Senior Earth Observation Engineer to act as the technical authority for optical payloads, image quality, and mission performance. You will work with mission teams, customers, and payload suppliers to define requirements, drive development, and support calibration, processing, and delivery of imagery.

You will shape on-ground and in-orbit test strategies, contribute to data processing architectures, and help Loft scale its Earth observation offerings across multiple