Senior Mission Software Engineer

Varda Space Industries•El Segundo, CA

10h•$169,067 - $216,031•Onsite

About The Position

The Senior Mission Software Engineer is responsible for Varda’s critical ground segment software and the platform that supports spacecraft operations. The role spans telemetry and commanding, data acquisition and distribution, mission control interfaces, simulation and test automation, and reliable deployment across laboratory, test-range, and mission-operations environments. The engineer works hands-on with flight software, avionics, RF and ground systems, and mission operations. Varda is developing commercial space infrastructure, including in-orbit pharmaceutical processing and reentry capsules. The company designs, builds, and operates its W-Series vehicles in-house. The position is based on-site in El Segundo, California. Salary is $169,067–$216,031 per year, and the role is eligible for incentives in the form of stock options and/or long-term cash awards. Due to access to export-controlled items, Varda hires U.S. persons who are authorized to access its technology without an export license.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, mathematics, physics, engineering, or equivalent technical experience in safety-critical software.
At least 5 years of experience developing spacecraft or similar safety-critical software.
Expertise in Python and a strong understanding of its language concepts.
Strong systems fundamentals, including concurrency, networking, performance, and reliability.
Experience building real-time data acquisition, scaling, and distribution services, including low-latency messaging and time-series and relational stores.
Hands-on experience with CI/CD, dependency and build systems, and infrastructure-as-code.
End-to-end observability experience with logging, metrics, and tracing.
Experience with Docker/Kubernetes, release management, phased rollouts, and operational readiness for controlled networks.
Must qualify as a U.S. person permitted to access the employer’s export-controlled technology without an export license.

Nice To Haves

Proficiency in C++, Ansible, and/or NiceGUI.
Experience with data acquisition and closed-loop control in laboratory or test-control environments.
Prior work on CI, testing, simulation, or data tools integrated with flight-software teams.
Experience with requirements, testing, and certification artifacts in safety-critical or certified workflows.
Knowledge of ground-systems standards and security in mission networks.
Experience building mission-grade user interfaces with structured command workflows, alarming, and situational awareness.

Responsibilities

Develop and maintain high-reliability ground-segment services for telemetry ingestion, scaling, distribution, and commanding, ensuring deterministic behavior for real-time operations and post-flight analysis.
Deliver operator-grade mission-control user interfaces and dashboards that optimize operations time and reduce cognitive load during integration, testing, and on-orbit operations.
Build tools for flight-software simulations, device emulators, and scenario-based automated tests to support safe, rapid iteration by avionics, GNC, and operations teams.
Design, implement, and productionize software for mission and ground-software teams.
Standardize CI/CD pipelines, artifact management, service templates, infrastructure-as-code, simulation and hardware-in-the-loop frameworks, test harnesses, and observability as self-service tooling.
Create robust deployment patterns for laboratory benches, test stands, and mission networks.
Implement safe rollout and rollback strategies and deployment approaches for air-gapped or limited-connectivity environments.