Principal Software Engineer - TeraWave Core Network Services

BLUE ORIGIN • Spokane, WA

21h

About The Position

At Blue Origin, we envision millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. We’re working to develop reusable, safe, and low-cost space vehicles and systems within a culture of safety, collaboration, and inclusion. Join our team of problem solvers as we add new chapters to the history of spaceflight! As a Principal Software Engineer for TeraWave Core Network Services, you will architect and build the foundational software layer that manages, routes, and controls Blue Origin's dynamic, 5,000+ satellite mesh network in real-time. As a founding member of the Core Services team, you will be responsible for the Control Plane that orchestrates the entire network, ensuring stability, low-latency performance, and self-healing capabilities as satellites orbit and hand off data across the constellation. This role requires deep expertise in distributed systems, database architecture, and management and control plane design to construct the distributed brain of a space-based internet service provider at unprecedented scale.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related technical field
• 8+ years of software development experience for a Senior role, or 12+ years for a Principal role, with a focus on complex distributed systems or network services
• Expert-level proficiency in C++, Rust, or Go for high-performance, low-latency systems development
• Deep experience with consensus algorithms such as Raft or Paxos, distributed caching, and message broker technologies including Kafka and gRPC
• Demonstrated ability to design and build stateful distributed systems operating across multiple geographic or logical domains
• Strong understanding of database design principles across relational, NoSQL, and time-series data stores for high-throughput workloads
• Proven ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional engineering teams in a complex, matrix organization
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to translate complex technical concepts to a variety of audiences

Nice To Haves

• Master's degree or higher in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or related field
• Experience with cloud-native architecture including microservices design and deployment within containerized environments using Kubernetes on EKS, AKS, or bare-metal infrastructure
• Background with service mesh technologies such as Istio or Linkerd and service discovery mechanisms in highly dynamic, multi-region environments
• Expert knowledge of distributed system resiliency patterns including circuit breakers, retry strategies with exponential backoff, and bulkhead isolation targeting five-nines availability
• Experience building reactive, asynchronous systems using event-sourcing or CQRS patterns to manage high-velocity network state changes
• Proficiency with observability tooling for high-cardinality monitoring and distributed tracing, including Prometheus, Jaeger, or OpenTelemetry
• Background in telecommunications, satellite communications, or space systems software development
• History of successfully delivering foundational software platforms for large-scale, mission-critical distributed systems under challenging constraints

Responsibilities

• Architect and implement highly available, low-latency control plane services using microservices patterns to handle subscriber provisioning, session management, and real-time network orchestration across the TeraWave constellation
• Build and maintain stateful distributed services that operate seamlessly across terrestrial data centers and orbital nodes, ensuring reliable coordination across the full network topology
• Develop and optimize database schemas across SQL, NoSQL, and time-series data stores to track and process billions of telemetry points generated by the satellite network
• Design distributed systems solutions incorporating consensus algorithms and message broker technologies to ensure consistent and reliable network state management at scale
• Lead technical decision-making for core network services architecture, balancing performance, reliability, and scalability requirements of a global satellite communications system
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams across ground systems, spacecraft, and network engineering to ensure seamless integration of core services within the broader TeraWave infrastructure
• Drive best practices in distributed systems design, ensuring the network remains self-healing and highly available under dynamic orbital and operational conditions
• Contribute to the definition of technical standards, software development methodologies, and architectural patterns for the Core Services team

Benefits

• Medical
• dental
• vision
• basic and supplemental life insurance
• paid parental leave
• short and long-term disability
• 401(k) with a company match of up to 5%
• Education Support Program
• Up to four (4) weeks per year based on weekly scheduled hours (Paid Time Off)
• Up to 14 company-paid holidays
• benefits and bonuses based on the company's intent to reward individual contributions and enable them to share in the company's results, or other factors at the company's sole discretion

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal