Senior Software Development Engineer

Blue Origin; Washington; On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Blue Origin is actively seeking a Senior Software Development Engineer for the Developer Platforms team. You will own systems with significant technical depth, lead design decisions, and ship software used daily by thousands of engineers.

You will build AI-assisted development capabilities, improve the developer experience, and automate workflows across teams to maintain reliable, scalable platforms that support spaceflight innovation.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional software development experience.
• 1) Deep experience designing, building, and operating distributed systems.
• 2) Proficiency in one or more of Go, Python, or JavaScript.
• 3) Experience with CI/CD systems and developer tooling.
• 4) Infrastructure as code (Terraform, CloudFormation, or similar).
• 5) Strong knowledge of AWS or comparable cloud platforms.
• 6) Experience with containerized workloads (Kubernetes, Docker).
• 7) Demonstrated ability to lead technical design efforts and mentor other engineers.
• 8) Strong problem-solving skills with debugging complex system failures.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and ship platform capabilities to improve the developer experience (CI/CD pipelines, integrations, self-service tooling, automation).
• 2) Own the full lifecycle of software from design through production operation.
• 3) Build and integrate AI-powered tools and workflows that accelerate engineering productivity.
• 4) Balance technical debt against feature delivery across multiple systems.
• 5) Partner with engineering teams to identify pain points and deliver platform solutions.
• 6) Evaluate and select tools and technologies to serve the team's mission; drive adoption.
• 7) Contribute to infrastructure and architecture decisions with distributed systems awareness.
• 8) Implement security controls and compliance solutions to meet federal requirements.
• 9) Drive operational excellence, including on-call rotation, incident response, and recovery planning.
• 10) Lead technical design efforts, mentor teammates, and review work for quality.

Skills

Distributed systems design

Team mentorship

Go programming

Python programming

JavaScript programming

CI/CD tooling

Problem solving

Debugging complex systems

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Terraform

AWS

Kubernetes

Docker

GitLab CI/CD

CI/CD pipelines

Job description

At Blue Origin, we envision millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. We're working to develop reusable, safe, and low-cost space vehicles and systems within a culture of safety, collaboration, and inclusion. Join our team of problem solvers as we add new chapters to the history of spaceflight!

This role is part of Enterprise Technology (ET), where we're developing the digital infrastructure needed to build the road to space, with an emphasis on digital capabilities required to advance Blue Origin's mission. Enterprise Technology is the center of excellence for digital technology at Blue Origin, providing oversight and governance to align technology and business strategies.

Senior Software Development Engineer

The Developer Platforms team builds and operates the tools and infrastructure that Blue Origin's engineers depend on to design, test, and deliver software every day. From source control to CI/CD to artifact management, we own the systems that make the rest of the company productive. We do this by building platforms that are secure by default (meeting our federal compliance obligations), AI-augmented (accelerating how engineers work), and continuously improving. When we improve the developer experience, every team ships faster, and that acceleration directly supports our mission of building a road to space.

We are seeking team members of all backgrounds who are passionate about space and who have a strong desire to serve on a team that is the backbone of the company. This position will directly impact the history of space exploration and will require your dedicated commitment and detailed attention towards safe and repeatable spaceflight.

As a Senior Software Development Engineer, you will own systems of significant technical depth, lead technical design, and ship software that thousands of engineers depend on daily, including next-generation AI-assisted development capabilities.

Our tech stack at a glance:

• Amazon Web Services
• Kubernetes and Docker
• GitLab (SCM, CI/CD)
• Artifactory/JFrog
• Terraform
• Linux
• Go, JavaScript, and Python
• AI/LLM tools (Claude, Codex, etc.)

What makes our engineering team successful?

• Technical breadth and depth with a strong understanding of emerging trends, including AI-assisted development
• A strong bias for automating everything and reducing toil
• Humility and the enthusiasm to learn unfamiliar domains
• Ownership mentality: you build it, you run it, you improve it
• A "customer first" mindset, recognizing that your customers are fellow engineers
• High judgment with technical design decisions and the ability to balance competing priorities
• The ability to build consensus across teams, champion ideas through to adoption, and lead without authority
• Comfort operating at the senior level: leading designs, mentoring others, and driving decisions without close oversight

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Design, develop, and ship platform capabilities that improve the developer experience across Blue Origin (CI/CD pipelines, integrations, self-service tooling, automation)
• Own the full lifecycle of the software you build, from design through production operation, with no day-to-day oversight
• Build and integrate AI-powered tools and workflows that accelerate engineering productivity
• Actively balance technical debt against feature delivery across multiple systems
• Partner with engineering teams across the company to identify pain points, gather requirements, and deliver platform solutions
• Evaluate and select tools, platforms, and technologies that best serve the team's mission; drive adoption from prototype through production
• Contribute to infrastructure and architecture decisions, with a strong awareness of distributed system interactions and trade-offs
• Implement security controls and compliance solutions to meet federal regulatory requirements
• Drive operational excellence across the team's platforms, including on-call rotation, incident response, root cause analysis, and recovery planning
• Lead technical design efforts, mentor teammates, and review the work of others for quality and correctness
• Scale systems sustainably through automation, and push for changes that improve reliability and developer velocity

Minimum Qualifications:

• 5+ years of professional software development experience
• Deep experience designing, building, and operating distributed systems
• Strong proficiency in one or more of: Go, Python, JavaScript
• Experience with CI/CD systems, build pipelines, and developer tooling
• Experience with infrastructure as code (Terraform, CloudFormation, or similar)
• Solid understanding of AWS or comparable cloud platforms
• Experience with containerized workloads (Kubernetes, Docker)
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical design efforts and mentor other engineers
• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to debug complex system failures ac