Senior Platform and Tooling Software Engineer

Wanna join the adventure? Loft Orbital is revolutionizing access to space by building reliable, shareable satellites that drastically reduce the time and complexity traditionally required to get to orbit. We operate satellites, fly customer payloads, and handle entire missions from end-to-end. We’re a close-knit team of space enthusiasts, software experts, and cutting-edge technologists, all working together to make space simple for our customers. As a Senior Platform and Tooling Software Engineer on our Cloud Infrastructure Team, you will design, build, and maintain core platform services, internal developer tools, and scalable infrastructure supporting Loft Orbital’s growing set of satellite missions. You will collaborate with multi-functional teams, spanning software development, satellite operations, and DevOps, to ensure our systems and tools are robust, efficient, and easy to use. This is an exciting opportunity to work on cutting-edge technology and help build modern automated space infrastructure. Our DevOps philosophy is reflected in our mindset, including Satellite operations. We offer SatDevOps training to empower you to operate our spacecraft! About the Role:

• Architect and Build Core Platform Services: Design and implement backend services, APIs, and libraries that power Loft Orbital’s multi-cloud infrastructure and support a wide range of satellite missions.
• Develop Internal Tooling: Create and maintain tools, frameworks, and automation solutions to streamline software development lifecycles (CI/CD), observability, and deployment across multi-cloud environments.
• Optimize Distributed Systems: Tackle the complexity of large-scale, high-availability systems, ensuring they are robust, scalable, and fault-tolerant in multi-region and multi-cloud setups.
• Foster Collaboration: Partner with engineering and operations teams to understand their workflow pain points, then develop or enhance tools to improve productivity, reliability, and performance.
• Enable Self-Service: Provide clear documentation, training, and guidance to empower teams to effectively utilize the services and tools you build.
• Champion Best Practices: Advocate for Infrastructure as Code, DevSecOps principles, performance optimizations, and reliability patterns throughout the organization.

Must Haves:

• Strong Software Engineering Background: Proficiency in a modern programming language (e.g., Python, Go, or similar). You care deeply about performance, testing, maintainability, and code quality.
• Experience with Distributed Systems: Knowledge of designing and running large-scale, microservices-based systems with high availability and resiliency in mind.
• Tooling & Automation: Proven track record of creating and supporting developer productivity tools (CI/CD pipelines, IaaC, observability stacks).
• Multi-Cloud Expertise: Experience managing systems that bridge multiple public clouds, including networking and authorization across cloud providers (AWS, GCP, Azure) and designing systems in a cloud provider agnostic manner.
• Collaboration & Communication: Excellent communication skills to liaise effectively with cross-functional stakeholders and deliver complex technical solutions in a clear, concise manner.
• Problem-Solving Mindset: Resourceful, curious, and comfortable working in a rapidly changing environment. You’re ready to mentor others, challenge assumptions, and champion improvements.

Nice to Haves:

• Security-First Approach: Exposure to vulnerability scanning, threat modeling, or broader DevSecOps principles.
• GitOps and Observability: Familiarity with Argo, FluxCD, or advanced Grafana-based observability.
• FinOps: Experience optimizing cloud spend in large-scale environments.
• Satellite Operations or IoT: A background in space systems, embedded systems, or IoT solutions is helpful (but not required!).

State law requires us to tell you the base compensation range for this role, which is $140,250- $190,000 per year. This is determined by your education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities.  The salary range for this role is intentionally wide as we evaluate individuals based on their unique experience and abilities to fit our needs. Most importantly, we are excited to meet you, and see if you are a great fit for our team. What we can’t quantify for you are the exciting challenges, supportive team, and amazing culture we enjoy.

 *Research shows that while men apply to jobs where they meet an average of 60% of the criteria, women and other marginalized 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.

Who We Are Loft Orbital builds “shareable” satellites, providing a fast & simple path to orbit for organizations that require access to space. Powered by our hardware & software products, we operate satellites, fly customer payloads onboard, and handle entire missions from end to end - significantly reducing the lead-time and risk of a traditional space mission. Our standard interface enables us to fly multiple customer payloads on the same satellite, with capabilities such as earth imagery, weather & climate /science data collection, IoT connectivity, in-orbit demonstrations, and national security missions. Our customers trust us to manage their space infrastructure, so they can focus on what matters most to them: operating their mission and collecting their data. At Loft, you’ll be given the autonomy and ownership to solve significant challenges, but with a close-knit and supportive team at your back. We believe that diversity and community are the foundation of an open culture. We are committed to hiring the best people regardless of background and make their time at Loft the most fulfilling period of their career. We value kind, supportive and team-oriented collaborators. It is also crucial for us that you are a problem solver and a great communicator. As our team is international, you will need strong English skills to better collaborate, easily communicate complex ideas and convey important messages. With 4 satellites on-orbit and a wave of exciting missions launching soon, we are scaling up quickly across our offices in San Francisco, CA | Golden, CO | and Toulouse, France. As an international company your resume will be reviewed by people across our offices so please attach a copy in English.