Senior Earth Observation Engineer: Image Quality & Payloads

Loft Orbital; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical Insurance

Dental Insurance

Vision Insurance

Flexible Time Off

401(k) plan & Equity

Relocation assistance (where needed)

Parental leave

Office lunches & snacks

Job summary

Loft Orbital, the Earth observation and space infrastructure company, seeks a Senior Earth Observation Engineer to own optical payloads, image quality, and mission performance across Loft's growing fleet. You will define requirements, drive development, support calibration and delivery of imagery, and help build the data processing foundation for sellable products.

You will collaborate with mission teams, suppliers, and customers to ensure high-quality imagery, robust calibration, and scalable

Qualifications

• 5+ years of demonstrated space systems engineering experience on earth observation missions.
• Familiarity with image quality metrics and imagery calibration (geometric, radiometric, spectral, etc.).
• Experience with optical payloads.
• Proficiency in Python (≥1 year).
• Strong communication and organizational skills.
• Able to challenge norms in aerospace engineering and testing; comfortable in a fast-paced environment.
• Hands-on approach to work under pressure.

Responsibilities

• Derive mission and payload requirements from Earth observation customers and translate to software/hardware teams.
• Lead optical payload suppliers' development and test activities.
• Co-develop on-ground and in-orbit test and calibration strategies with AIT/OPS.
• Define data processing strategy for onboard and ground systems.
• Support CONOPS development with Lead Systems Engineer.
• Assist business development for optical payload customers and virtual missions.
• Participate in integration, test campaigns, launch, and in-orbit commissioning.
• Contribute to Loft's Earth observation roadmap.

Skills

Space systems eng

Image quality metrics

Optical payloads

Python

Communication skills

Fast-paced dev

In-orbit calibration

Job description

Loft Orbital, the Earth observation and space infrastructure company, seeks a Senior Earth Observation Engineer to own optical payloads, image quality, and mission performance across Loft's growing fleet. You will define requirements, drive development, support calibration and delivery of imagery, and help build the data processing foundation for sellable products.

You will collaborate with mission teams, suppliers, and customers to ensure high-quality imagery, robust calibration, and scalable