Senior Product Systems Engineer

Alumni Ventures; Golden (CO); On-site; USD 160,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

100% company-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance

Flexible Time Off policy

401(k) plan and equity options

Daily catered lunches and snacks in office

Job summary

Loft Orbital in Golden, Colorado is seeking a Senior Product Systems Engineer to shape the architecture across ground and space, ensuring a coherent system for their offerings. The role involves defining requirements, coordinating between teams, and influencing how Loft's products are built and scaled.

The ideal candidate will have a strong systems engineering background, experience with complex software and hardware products, and the ability to drive alignment across various teams. This position offers a competitive salary and diverse benefits.

Qualifications

• Strong experience in complex technical products spanning software and hardware.
• Ability to structure systems into clear capabilities and requirements.
• Sound engineering judgment for growing organizations.

Responsibilities

• Define the general architecture of Loft’s offering.
• Support capability allocation across hardware, software, and ground systems.
• Clarify interaction models between various software systems.

Skills

Systems engineering background

Strong communication skills

Understanding of software-heavy systems

Coordination of cross-functional work

Job description

Wanna join the adventure?

Loft Orbital builds a space infrastructure providing a fast and simple path to orbit. Using flight‑proven buses, we design, integrate and operate spacecraft to fly physical or virtual customer payloads. We handle entire missions end to end, significantly reducing lead‑time and risk compared to a traditional space mission.

As a Senior Product Systems Engineer at Loft, you will own the architecture of our overall offering—the layer that sits above any single implementation team and brings coherence across ground, space, software, and hardware. You will define how Loft's platform is structured, how capabilities are allocated across segments, and how customers, third‑party software, and Loft's own stack interact.

This is not a role about executing within a defined system. It is about shaping the system itself—making cross‑cutting architecture decisions, defining interfaces and requirements at the offering level, and ensuring the ground processing chain and customer‑facing tooling evolve in a coherent, reusable, and product‑relevant way. You will work closely with engineering, product, and operations teams across sites, and your work will directly influence how Loft's offering is built, exposed, and scaled.

About this role:

• Help define the general architecture of Loft’s offering across ground and space
• Support capability allocation across hardware, software, ground, flight, Loft‑owned components, and external components
• Ensure the ground processing chain is defined and evolved as a coherent part of the offering
• Help shape ground software tools and interfaces as the main entry point for customers
• Clarify the interaction model between OBSW, ground software, customer software, third‑party software, and Loft’s stack
• Help define, organize, and maintain requirements, interfaces, and architectural boundaries for offering‑level topics
• Coordinate architecture discussions and drive alignment between product intent, system architecture, and implementation realities across teams
• Contribute to CONOPS, ICDs, architecture notes, trade studies, and related technical documentation
• Help ensure solutions are reusable, scalable, and understandable rather than tailored only to one mission
• Support architecture reviews and technical decision‑making on cross‑cutting topics

Must Haves:

• Strong systems engineering background in complex technical products spanning software and hardware
• Experience working at the boundary between architecture definition, requirements structuring, and engineering implementation
• Ability to structure complex systems into clear capabilities, interfaces, requirements, and responsibilities
• Strong understanding of software‑heavy systems, including distributed components, APIs, processing chains, and integration patterns
• Ability to coordinate cross‑functional technical work across several teams without relying on direct authority
• Strong communication and documentation skills, including the ability to turn technical ambiguity into a clear framework for decisions and execution
• Sound engineering judgment on the right level of rigor, abstraction, and specification for a growing organization

Nice to Haves:

• Experience with space systems, including ground segment tooling, onboard software, or customer‑facing technical platforms
• Experience defining integration models involving customer‑owned or third‑party software
• Experience with architecture trade studies, capability allocation, and system‑level interface management
• Familiarity with CONOPS, ICDs, and other architecture or interface documentation methods
• Experience with onboard data processing and cloud‑based ground software
• Experience in international and cross‑site engineering collaboration

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

160,000 - 210,000 USD a year

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.