Senior Spacecraft Mission Software Engineer

About This Role

The Senior Spacecraft Mission Software Engineer is responsible for Varda's critical ground segment software, and the platform it runs on which enables spacecraft operations. We operate at the intersection of telemetry and commanding, data acquisition and distribution, mission control interfaces, simulation and test automation, with reliable deployment across lab, test range, and mission operations environments. You'll work hands-on with flight software, avionics, RF/ground systems, and mission ops.

Responsibilities

• Own Ground Segment Services: Develop and maintain high-reliability services for telemetry ingestion, scaling, distribution, and commanding. Ensure deterministic behavior for real-time operations and post-flight analysis.
• Mission Control Interfaces: Deliver operator-grade UIs and dashboards that optimize "ops time" and reduce cognitive load across integration, test, and on-orbit operations phases.
• Simulation and Test Automation: Build tools to run flight-software simulations, device emulators, and scenario-based automated tests - enabling fast, safe iteration for avionics, GNC, and operations teams.
• Build the Mission Platform: Design, implement, and productionize software for mission and ground software teams. Standardize CI/CD pipelines, artifact management, service templates, infrastructure-as-code, simulation and hardware-in-the-loop frameworks, test harnesses, and observability - all delivered as self-service tooling.
• Deployments Across Environments: Create robust deployment patterns for lab benches, test stands, and mission networks. Implement safe rollout/rollback strategies and air-gapped or limited-connectivity deployment approaches.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, math, physics, engineering or equivalent technical experience in safety critical software.
• 5+ years of experience in the development of spacecraft or similar safety critical software.
• Expertise with development in Python, along with a strong understanding of the language concepts.
• Have strong systems fundamentals: concurrency, networking, performance, reliability.
• Experience building real-time data acquisition, scaling, and distribution services - low-latency messaging, time-series and relational stores.
• Hands-on experience with CI/CD, dependency/build systems, and infrastructure-as-code.
• End-to-end observability experience: logging, metrics, tracing.
• Docker/Kubernetes; release management, phased rollouts, and operational readiness for controlled networks.

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Proficiency in C++, Ansible, and/or NiceGUI.
• Experience with DAQ and closed-loop control (lab/test control environments).
• Prior work on CI/testing/simulation/data tools integrated with flight software teams.
• Experience with requirements, test, and certification artifacts from safety-critical or certified workflows.
• Knowledge of ground systems standards; security in mission networks.
• Experience building mission-grade UIs with structured command workflows, alarming, and situational awareness.

Pay Range

• Salary range: Senior Software: $169,067 - $216,031/ per year.
• This role is on-site in El Segundo, CA.
• Leveling and base salary is determined by job-related skills, education level, experience level, and job performance.
• You will be eligible for incentives in the form of stock options and/or long-term cash awards.

ITAR Requirements

Varda, like all employers, must ensure that its employees working in the United States are lawfully authorized to work in the U.S. Additionally, our employees are exposed to and have access to certain export-controlled items. Because our employees are provided access to export-controlled items, our policy is to only hire "U.S. persons" who are permitted to have access to our technology without an export license.

"US person" means: U.S. citizen, U.S. lawful permanent resident, or protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3) (i.e., individual admitted to the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum).