Senior Platform Engineer (DevX)

K2 Space Corporation; Los Angeles, Northern (CA, KY); On-site; USD 165,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Health benefits

Parental leave

Job summary

K2 Space is seeking a senior software engineer to join our enterprise software team responsible for the digital backbone powering satellite design, manufacturing, and mission operations. You will develop tools uniting engineering, production, and mission control to move concepts to orbit faster than ever.

Ideal candidates bring 8+ years in developer tooling, strong cloud and CI/CD expertise, and a passion for AI-assisted development.

Qualifications

• BS/MS in Computer Science (or equivalent) and 8+ years of experience building developer tooling and deployment patterns.
• PoC to evaluate new technology: AI Platform, AI models, introducing new developer experience products.
• Proficiency in at least one language (Go, TypeScript, Python, C#) and disciplined SCM workflows (branching, reviews, automated gates)
• Deep working knowledge of designing, developing and deploying applications to Amazon EKS
• Deep working knowledge of CI/CD build pipelines with GitHub or Gitlab
• Competence leveraging observability & SLOs (metrics, tracing, structured logs, L4/L7 telemetry, end-to-end path)
• Experience with AI-assisted development process and understanding benefits and challenges of leveraging AI for faster deliverables

Responsibilities

• Build consistent application patterns to deploy to Amazon EKS enabling AI-assisted development work
• Promote AI adoption in a secure and consistent model while supporting AI operational needs
• Establish AI guardrails, observability and governance in software development for secure AI-assisted deployments
• Build guard rails and out-of-the-box platform functionalities for golden path deployment and faster go-lives
• Lead long-term developer experience roadmap incorporating multiple disciplines
• Engineer resilient traffic paths and harden them via chaos tests and MTTR reduction
• Incorporate observability services for end-to-end monitoring and alerting
• Provide approachable docs and diagnostics to shorten support loops
• Optimize performance and cost and act on anomalies
• Steward code lifecycle and adoption including versioning, migrations, pruning of unused resources
• Mentor engineers and partner with adjacent teams to embed abstractions into golden paths
• Build automated policies to ensure good code deployment practices

Skills

Go

TypeScript

Python

C#

Education

BS/MS in Computer Science

Tools

GitHub

GitLab

Terraform

CDK

GitOps

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 over $1 billion in total funding from leading investors including Altimeter Capital, ICONIQ, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, and T. Rowe Price — and with over $1 billion in signed contracts across commercial and US 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 in 2027 and plans to scale to 100 satellites a year, we’re Building Bigger — helping develop the solar system and build toward 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 high-growth Series D-funded company, we’d love for you to apply.

The Role

Our enterprise software team builds the digital backbone that powers K2 Space’s($1Braised to date)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.

Our Ideal Candidate

• Distillsapplication developmentbest practices into repeatable low friction patterns to enable users from multiple backgroundsto buildhigh-qualityapplications and services
• Practices surgical precision in feature development, delivering high value while avoiding complexity that delays or bloats
• Delivers work with excellence including readable code, automated tests, clear documentation, consistent maintenance, and polished observability
• Intuitively understandsmanufacturingdomain functionality, service identity, and secure communication with a keen ability to simplify them
• Understands the importance of resilience and reliability in production operations and upgrades
  

Responsibilities

• Buildconsistentapplicationpatternstodeploy toAmazon EKSenablingbothAI-assistedgeneral applicationdevelopment and specialized application development work
• Promoting AI adoption in a secure and consistent modelwhile supporting AI operational needs.
• Establishing AI guardrails,observabilityand governancewithin the context of software development ensuring AIassistedapplication developmentwill be secured with industry best practices
• Build guard rails andout-of-the-boxplatform functionalitiesfor golden pathdeploymentmodeland accelerate applicationsgo-live with low frictiontooling
• Lead long termdeveloper experienceroad mapincorporatingcapabilities frommultiple disciplines within software industry
• Engineer resilient traffic paths (timeouts, retries, circuit breaking, failure isolation) and harden them via chaos tests, automated remediation, and MTTR reduction
• Incorporateobservabilityservicesforend‑to‑endapplication monitoring and alerting
• Provide approachable docs & diagnostics (guides, diagrams, ‘why can’t this connect?’ flows) to shorten support loops
• Optimizeperformance & cost (latency budgets, cross‑AZ transfer, IP consumption, LB efficiency) and act on anomalies
• Stewardcodelifecycle and adoption including versioning, safe migrations, deprecations, usage telemetry, and proactive pruning of unused resources
• Mentor engineers and partner with adjacent teams to embedapplicationabstractions into golden paths, raising organizational fluency and consistencyin software engineering
• Build automated policies and processes toensure good code deployment practices, code hygiene, good code test practices
  

Qualifications

• BS/MS in Computer Science (or equivalent) and 8+ years of experience buildingdeveloper tooling and deployment patterns
• Comfortable with performing PoC to evaluatenew technology: AI Platform, AI models, introducing newdeveloper experienceproducts.
• Proficiencyin at least one language (Go, TypeScript, Python,C#) and disciplined SCM workflows (branching, reviews, automated gates)
• Deep working knowledgearchitecture knowledge of designing,developingand deploying application to Amazon EKS
• Deep working knowledge of CI/CD build pipeline withGithubor Gitlab
• Competenceleveragingobservability & SLOs (metrics, tracing, structured logs, L4/L7 telemetry, end‑to‑end request path, visibility into applied policies, SLI/SLO definition & enforcement)
• Experience withusingTerraform or CDK,GitOps(GH Actions, Gitlab CI), progressive/canary rollouts, policy-as-code integration
• Experience withAI-assisted development process andunderstandhow tonavigatebenefits and challenges ofleveraging AIto acceleratedeliverables

Compensation and Benefits

• Base salary range for this role is $165,000 - $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

If you don’t meet 100% of the preferred skills and experience, we encourage you to still apply! Building a spacecraft unlike any other requires a team unlike any other and non-traditional career twists and turns are encouraged!

If you need a reasonable accommodation as part of your application for employment or interviews with us, please let us know.

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 by22 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.