Senior Ground Systems Software Engineer, Spacecraft Ops

Vardaspace; El Segundo (CA); On-site; USD 169,000 - 216,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) retirement plan with employer 6

Stock options / equity incentives

Relocation support

Job summary

Varda Space Industries is hiring a Mission Software Engineer to own the Ground Segment Services and to build the Mission Platform supporting spacecraft operations. You will work at the intersection of telemetry, commanding, data distribution, and mission control interfaces, delivering reliable, scalable software for critical space missions.

The role requires 5+ years in safety-critical software, strong Python skills, and hands-on experience with CI/CD, IaC, and observability.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, math, physics, engineering, or equivalent safety-critical software experience.
• 5+ years of experience developing spacecraft or safety-critical software.
• Proficiency in Python with strong systems fundamentals including concurrency, networking, and performance.
• Experience building real-time data acquisition, low-latency distribution, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Hands-on experience with infrastructure-as-code and observability (logging, metrics, tracing).

Responsibilities

• Own Ground Segment Services: develop and maintain high-reliability telemetry ingestion, distribution, and commanding services.
• Mission Control Interfaces: deliver operator-grade UIs and dashboards to optimize ops time and reduce cognitive load.
• Simulation and Test Automation: build tools for flight-software simulations, device emulators, and automated tests.
• Build the Mission Platform: design, implement, and productionize software for mission and ground teams; standardize CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure-as-code.
• Deployments Across Environments: create robust deployment patterns for lab benches, test stands, and mission networks.

Skills

Python

Concurrency

Networking

Performance

Reliability

Real-time data

CI/CD

Infrastructure as Code

Observability

Docker/Kubernetes

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent (technical)

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Varda Space Industries is hiring a Mission Software Engineer to own the Ground Segment Services and to build the Mission Platform supporting spacecraft operations. You will work at the intersection of telemetry, commanding, data distribution, and mission control interfaces, delivering reliable, scalable software for critical space missions.

The role requires 5+ years in safety-critical software, strong Python skills, and hands-on experience with CI/CD, IaC, and observability.