Senior Ground Software Engineer

What you will be doing:

Architect and scale a Python-based Ground Data System designing microservices that handle real-time command uplink, telemetry downlink, and event processing across a growing constellation

Build binary protocol pipelines for CCSDS-compliant spacecraft communication, including TC/TM framing, CFDP file transfers, and AES encryption/decryption

Own the messaging infrastructure to evaluate and optimize MQTT broker architecture, and quantify performance bottlenecks (MQTT throughput, QoS tuning, database writes, CPU-bound encoding/decoding)

Build high-performance APIs for mission-critical command and control operations

Create workflow orchestration systems for automated satellite and ground procedures

Integrate with ground station networks and cloud infrastructure to develop scalable data ingestion and processing pipelines for high-rate satellite telemetry and command streams

Establish software engineering and DevOps best practices including code reviews, testing standards, and architectural guidelines

Collaborate cross-functionally with Flight Software, Payload, and Mission Operations Teams

What you bring to the role:

5+ years of backend software engineering experience building scalable, fault-tolerant systems for telemetry ingestion, command & control, or real-time data processing at scale

Proficiency with microservices architecture, message queues, gRPC, and protobufs

Expert Python skills with experience with modern frameworks (FastAPI, Pydantic, SQLAlchemy), asynchronous programming (asyncio, threading), API development

Knowledge of CCSDS protocols (TC, TM, CFDP) or willingness to learn space communication standards quickly

Time-series databases (InfluxDB, TimescaleDB, or similar at high ingest rates)

Kubernetes production experience (HPA, resource management, networking, debugging pods at scale) Experience designing and implementing event-driven architectures and workflow orchestration systems

Solid understanding of AWS services, PostgreSQL, and container-based deployment solutions

Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and modern software development practices

Experience with message bus systems (Kafka, MQTT) and in-memory databases for real-time data processing

Knowledge of Infrastructure as Code (Terraform/OpenTofu), monitoring/observability tools, and high-availability system design

Experience with high-throughput data processing and performance optimization for mission-critical applications

Strong system design skills with ability to make architectural decisions for scalable distributed systems

Bonus Points for the following:

Bachelor's degree in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent

Experience with Kubernetes and container orchestration platforms

Knowledge of time-series databases

Background in satellite operations, mission control systems, aerospace, defense, or other mission-critical industries

Grafana/observability stack for distributed systems monitoring Strong intellectual curiosity and commitment to continuous learning

Exceptional attention to detail and an ownership mentality