Senior Backend Engineer - Mission Experiences
Posted Updated
Description
Wanna join the adventure?
Loft Orbital is looking for a Senior Backend Engineer to join our Mission Experiences team. We build customer and partner-facing interfaces, APIs, and tools for planning and executing missions with Loft. We translate complex workflows and mission data into clear, dependable experiences that help customers and partners collaborate with Loft teams and move their missions forward, establishing a standard for space mission execution at scale.
We’re hiring for one position across multiple locations - you only need to apply once.
About this role:
- Build and operate features across backend services that collect, manage, and surface critical infrastructure data for the full Loft mission lifecycle.
- Design and implement APIs and integrations that connect tooling and data across teams and systems.
- Partner with program management, satellite engineering, operations, and business stakeholders to analyze and understand mission design, program, and business processes, and translate them into intuitive, reliable software.
- Apply a product mindset across the stack: seek user feedback, identify friction in backend workflows and user experiences, and deliver solutions that meaningfully reduce complexity for the people and teams building and operating space infrastructure.
Must Haves:
- Strong proficiency in Python for backend engineering.
- Comfortable working with Docker for containerization and deployment in scalable environments.
- Demonstrated experience designing, developing, and implementing APIs, for different use cases and stakeholders.
- Experience in backend architecture, including API design, robust database interactions, and integrations between products, internal tools, and business systems.
- Strong analytical skills to understand complex technical and business processes, identify friction points, and translate them into effective technical solutions.
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to explain complex ideas clearly, and work effectively across engineering, operations, and business teams.
- Proactive problem-solving mindset, comfortable challenging assumptions constructively and taking ownership of features from design through production operations.
Nice to Haves:
- Experience in the design, modeling, or analysis of space missions, with an understanding of mission lifecycle complexities.
- Experience building customer-facing interfaces, customer portals, or platforms.
- Experience designing or developing tasking interfaces or platforms, particularly in the satellite or Earth Observation domain.
- Proficiency with Django and GraphQL, and familiarity with modern cloud infrastructure platforms (e.g. GCP/AWS, Kubernetes).
- Familiarity with testing tools across the stack (e.g. PyTest, Jest, React Testing Library, Playwright/Cypress) and strong CI/CD practices.
Some of Our Awesome Benefits:
- 100% company-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance option for employees and dependents
- 100% company-paid Basic Life (1x salary, up to $300K), AD&D, Short-Term, and Long-Term Disability insurance
- Health Savings Account (HSA) with an employer contribution, plus Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) and pre-tax commuter benefits
- Carrot Fertility, which provides comprehensive, inclusive fertility healthcare and family-forming benefits with financial support
- One Medical membership for telemedicine and primary care
- Free, confidential Employee Assistance Program through MetLife and TELUS Health
- Fully paid parental leave: 16 weeks for birthing parents and 10 weeks for non-birthing parents (including adoption and surrogacy), plus an optional 2-week part-time return
- Flexible Time Off policy for vacation and sick leave, and 12 paid holidays
- 401(k) plan and equity options
- Daily catered lunches and snacks in office
- International exposure to our team in France
- Annual company off-sites and many social events and celebrations
- Relocation assistance when applicable
*Research shows that while men apply to jobs where they meet an average of 60% of the criteria, women and other underrepresented 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: Space Made Simple.
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.
As an international company your resume will be reviewed by people across our offices so please attach a copy in English.
Skills
As published by lever · 10 questions · 4 written answers
Basics
Resume/CV, Full name, Email, Phone, Current location, Current company, LinkedIn URL, Twitter URL, GitHub URL, Portfolio URL, Other website
Short answers (1)
- What is your notice period and when would you be available to start?
Pick from a list (5)
- This role requires at least 3 days a week in the office, are you able to easily commute to the location the role is based in? optional
- If not, would you be open to relocating? Please note, we do provide relocation assistance optional
- Are you currently legally authorized to work in the United States? optional
- Will you now or in the future require employer sponsorship to work in the United States? optional
- Which programming language is explicitly mentioned in the job description? optional
Written answers (4)
- If you selected “Yes” to requiring sponsorship now or in the future, please specify your current visa or work authorization status (e.g. H-1B, TN, OPT, etc.)
- How did you hear about us? (LinkedIn, job board, recruiter outreach, employee referral, etc.)
- Any other information you would like us to know? optional
- Describe the software system or service you’re most proud of building. What did it do, why did it matter to its users, and what key technical or design decisions did you make along the way?