Senior Spacecraft Mission Software Engineer

Varda Space•El Segundo, CA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The Senior Spacecraft Mission Software Engineer is responsible for Varda’s critical ground-segment software and the platform used to operate spacecraft. The role works across telemetry and commanding, data acquisition and distribution, mission-control interfaces, simulation and test automation, and reliable deployment in lab, test-range, and mission-operations environments. The engineer works hands-on with flight software, avionics, RF and ground systems, and mission operations. Varda develops commercial space infrastructure, including in-orbit pharmaceutical processing and reentry capsules. The company designs, builds, and operates its vehicles and related systems in-house. Varda is headquartered in El Segundo, California, with additional offices in Washington, DC, and Huntsville, Alabama. This role is on-site in El Segundo, California. The stated annual salary range is $169,067–$216,031. The employee will be eligible for incentives in the form of stock options and/or long-term cash awards. Because employees have access to export-controlled items, Varda’s policy is to hire U.S. persons permitted 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 developing in Python and a strong understanding of Python 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 data stores.
Hands-on experience with CI/CD, dependency and build systems, and infrastructure-as-code.
End-to-end observability experience, including logging, metrics, and tracing.
Experience with Docker/Kubernetes, release management, phased rollouts, and operational readiness for controlled networks.
Must be 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 lab or test-control environments.
Prior work on CI, testing, simulation, or data tools integrated with flight-software teams.
Experience with requirements, test, and certification artifacts from 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 user interfaces and dashboards that optimize operations time and reduce cognitive load across integration, test, and on-orbit operations.
Build tools for flight-software simulations, device emulators, and scenario-based automated tests to support safe, rapid iteration for 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 lab benches, test stands, and mission networks.
Implement safe rollout and rollback strategies and deployment approaches for air-gapped or limited-connectivity environments.