Spacecraft Ground Software Engineer II
Quantum Space3 months ago
Hawthorne, CA, USAMid Level
Base Salary
$120k - $150k/yr
Responsibilities
- Lead development, integration, deployment, and operational support for spacecraft ground software.
- Build scalable distributed systems and operational tooling for spacecraft integration, testing, command and telemetry, and on-orbit operations.
- Develop software involving networking, data routing, communication protocols, message buses, APIs, and real-time data pipelines.
- Own major architecture components end-to-end from design through deployment and operational support.
- Contribute to requirements development, verification, traceability, software testing, and system-level testing.
- Collaborate with flight software, AI&T, mission operations, avionics, and systems engineering teams.
- Support on-call rotations and real-time operational events during critical mission activities.
- Document operational procedures, interfaces, system architecture, and the operational impacts of technical decisions.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, Mathematics, or a related technical field.
- At least 5 years of professional full-stack software development experience, including production or operational deployment.
- Strong understanding of networking, data routing, communication protocols, message buses, APIs, real-time data pipelines, distributed systems, and ground system architectures.
- Experience with cloud infrastructure or equivalent on-premises environments, relational or non-relational databases, requirements development, verification, traceability, and software and system-level testing.
- Proficiency with Linux environments, command-line workflows, Bash scripting, and modern source-control workflows.
- Experience leading end-to-end system development from design through deployment and operational support.
- Strong technical communication and documentation skills, including communicating operational impacts of technical decisions.
- Preferred experience includes ground segment, mission-control, spacecraft operations, command and telemetry, Grafana or similar monitoring and visualization platforms, Atlassian tools, Docker, Kubernetes, high-availability architectures, and operational or mission-critical environments.
- Preferred domain exposure includes aerospace, defense, robotics, or autonomous systems, along with experience using Python, Go, Java, C++, or similar backend technologies.
Benefits
- Competitive salary, equity, medical, dental, vision, generous leave, HSA, 401(k) matching, and equity sharing.
- The role is located in Hawthorne, California.
- The position offers ownership of mission-critical software, technical architecture influence, and opportunities to grow expertise in ground systems, mission operations, cloud infrastructure, and distributed software.
About Quantum Space
Quantum Space builds maneuver-first spacecraft and provides in-space logistics for government and commercial operators. Its Ranger platform uses high delta‑V propulsion and modular configurations to support missions such as rapid repositioning, asset deployment, and refueling across geostationary and cislunar orbits; revenue comes from spacecraft sales and mission services. The company is privately held and headquartered in Rockville, Maryland.