Design, build, and maintain backend services and data pipelines that ingest, process, track, and deliver satellite payload data. Improve APIs, observability, and reliability; collaborate with mission, operations, and infrastructure teams; support incident response and SatDevOps rotations to operate spacecraft and troubleshoot data anomalies.
Loft Orbital is looking for a Backend Engineer to join our Data Management Services (DMS) team.
DMS owns the Cockpit backend services that move payload data from our satellites to our customers. The team builds and maintains the services that ingest data from ground stations, process and categorize it, track it end‑to‑end, and deliver it reliably to internal tools and external endpoints.
You’ll help design and scale the microservices and data pipelines that sit between ground segment, satellite operations, and customer deliveries - turning raw on‑orbit data into usable products. You’ll work closely with backend, ground software, flight software, space infrastructure, and customer operations teams, and you’ll have a direct impact on how quickly and reliably customers receive their data. We also offer SatDevOps training, so you don’t just write the tools - you actually use them to operate spacecraft.
If you’re excited about building backend systems that move and transform satellite data at scale - and you like the idea of both shipping code and seeing how it performs in real operations - we’d love to hear from you.
About this Role:
- Design and build backend services for data ingest, processing, and delivery that move payload data from ground stations and other sources into Cockpit and out to customer endpoints.
- Implement and improve data pipelines and APIs with a strong focus on data correctness, traceability, performance, and reliability.
- Own and evolve backend components such as connectors, processing jobs, and delivery services that other Cockpit teams and customer‑facing tools depend on.
- Collaborate with other Cockpit teams and stakeholders (mission management, mission operations, space infrastructure, customer operations) to make sure on‑orbit tasking and ground data flows work smoothly together.
- Support internal users of Cockpit’s data services by improving APIs, debugging tricky data issues, and strengthening observability (metrics, logs, dashboards).
- Have the opportunity to take part in spacecraft operations through SatDevOps rotations, occasionally helping investigate data‑related anomalies and supporting real‑time incident response when needed.
Must Haves:
- Strong Python development experience in a production environment.
- Experience with Docker and container‑based development.
- Hands‑on experience with backend web development frameworks (e.g., Django, Flask, FastAPI, etc.).
- Proven API design skills (designing, documenting, and maintaining HTTP/GraphQL/REST‑style APIs).
- Practical experience working with databases and data‑centric backend services.
Nice to Haves:
- Experience with Django and/or GraphQL.
- Strong database fundamentals and experience with PostgreSQL or similar relational databases.
- Exposure to message-oriented middleware or event streaming systems (e.g., NATS, NATS JetStream).
- Experience building or maintaining event-driven data pipelines, ETLs, or stream processing systems.
- Familiarity with metrics computation, data transformation, and/or time-series data stores (e.g., MongoDB time-series collections, InfluxDB, TimescaleDB).
- Exposure to Kubernetes and cloud-native deployments in production (GCP and/or AWS).
- Background in mission-critical, distributed, or real-time systems, especially data-intensive ones (space or otherwise).
- Experience collaborating with international, distributed teams across time zones and cultures.
Who We Are: Founded in 2017, Loft provides governments, companies, and research institutions with a fast, reliable, and simple way to deploy missions in orbit.
We integrate, launch, and operate spacecraft, offering end-to-end missions as a service across Earth observation, IoT connectivity, on-orbit AI, national security missions, and more. Leveraging our existing space infrastructure and an extensive inventory of satellite buses, Loft is reducing years-long integration and launch timelines to months. With more than 30 missions flown, Loft’s flight heritage and proven technologies enable customers to focus on their mission objectives.
With a growing fleet on track to reach 30 satellites by 2027, we are scaling up quickly across our offices in San Francisco, CA | Golden, CO | and Toulouse, France to meet accelerating demand for space infrastructure.
Loft Orbital San Francisco, California, USA Office
715 Bryant St. , San Francisco, CA, United States, 94117
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