Principal Enterprise Software Engineer

K2 Space • Los Angeles, CA

118d • $190,000 - $230,000

About The Position

K2 Space is building large, high-powered spacecraft for the next generation of space development. Backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Altimeter Capital, and many others ($200M raised to date), we intend to mass produce the highest-powered satellite platforms ever built for missions across LEO to Deep Space. The rise of launch vehicles like Falcon 9 and Starship enables the move from an era of mass constraint to one of mass abundance. We believe this new era requires spacecraft with a fundamentally different design in order to fully utilize the massive rockets coming to market. We’re a team that believes the future lies in building large, high-powered satellites that can handle multiple orbits. This is a necessity if we ever want to develop the solar system, and become a Kardashev Type II (K2) civilization. If you are a motivated individual who thrives in a fast-paced environment and you're excited about contributing to the success of a groundbreaking Series B space startup, we’d love for you to apply.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, information technology, mathematics or a STEM discipline or 15+ years of professional experience in software engineering.
• 10+ years of experience in full stack development, platform engineering, or API development.
• 5+ years of experience with AWS (or Azure, GCP).
• 5+ years of in-depth working experience with CI/CD such as GH Actions, Jenkins, Gitlab CI/CD.
• Working experience with Docker.
• In-depth working experience with Kubernetes (prefer AWS EKS).
• Expert working experience with one or more of the following static typed programming languages such as C#, Go, Java, C++, TypeScript.
• 5+ years of experience with structured database such as PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Snowflake or similar technologies.
• Working experience with unstructured database such as NoSQL, Amazon DynamoDB, MongoDB or similar.
• Strong working experience with REST API or gRPC.
• Strong working experience with binary management platforms such as JFrog Artifactory, AWS CodeArtifact or similar technologies.
• Experience with infrastructure orchestration and management tools (Terraform, Ansible, Puppet).

Nice To Haves

• Experience with Next.js, React, Angular, or similar frameworks.
• Working experience with testing tools such as Cucumber and Cypress.
• Experience designing scalable, high-performance software systems.
• Knowledge of build systems and package management tools (e.g., Make, Gradle, npm, pip).
• Familiarity with data streaming technologies like Apache Kafka, RabbitMQ, or similar.

Responsibilities

• Develop highly reliable software solutions used across K2 Space — from factory floors to mission control.
• Create and evolve applications that improve how we design, build, and operate our spacecraft.
• Partner closely with engineers, business partners, and leaders across disciplines to understand their challenges and design efficient solutions.
• Develop prototypes to test concepts and progress to full-fledged software products.
• Own full-lifecycle product development from inception to happy customers.
• Lead architecture reviews, design discussions, and code reviews with your unique perspective.
• Lead software architecture design, deployment strategy, coding standards, and quality processes.
• Evaluate and make decisions regarding engineering options while balancing tradeoffs.
• Advocate, defend and convert other engineering leaders to your own solutions.
• Use data to drive prioritization of work and design of solutions to create the largest positive impact.
• Actively contribute to building a culture of transparency, empathy, integrity, and engineering excellence.
• Actively mentor other staff members and help team members build good culture and engineering practices.

Benefits

• Base salary range for this role is $190,000 - $230,000 + equity in the company.
• Comprehensive benefits package including unlimited paid time off, medical/dental/vision coverage, life insurance, paid parental leave, and many other perks.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Bachelor's degree
• Number of Employees: 51-100 employees