---
title: 'Backend Engineer - Mission Operations Services at Loft Orbital Solutions'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/backend-engineer-mission-operations-services-loft-orbital-solutions-golden-v32t9edy79s4'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-08'
---

# Backend Engineer - Mission Operations Services at Loft Orbital Solutions

- **Company:** Loft Orbital Solutions
- **Location:** Golden, CO
- **Compensation:** $140k–$190k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-06-29
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-08
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/loftorbital/35d817d9-dada-4975-bb41-baa90d8b03f1

## Job description

Loft Orbital is looking for a Backend Engineer to join our Mission Operations Services (MOS) team. MOS owns the backend services that let Loft operators and customers command, monitor, and automate our satellite fleet through Cockpit, our mission control system. You’ll help build and scale the microservices that sit between ground and flight software, turning high-level intent into safe, reliable on-orbit operations.

You’ll work across multiple satellite platforms and collaborate closely with backend, flight software, embedded systems, test, and satellite operations teams. This is a hands-on engineering role where you’ll both build new systems and help debug live missions. We also offer SatDevOps training, so you don’t just write the tools - you actually use them to operate spacecraft.

If you’re excited about building backend systems that directly control satellites - and you like the idea of both shipping code and helping fly missions - we’d love to hear from you.

## About this Role

- Design and build backend tools for operations: services that power passes, autopilots, activities, and day‑to‑day satellite operations.
- Handle commands and telemetry across multiple satellite buses and ground segment providers, with a strong focus on safety, robustness, and observability.
- Write production backend code in Python, owning services end‑to‑end from design and implementation through deployment and maintenance.
- Collaborate with flight software, embedded software, integration and test, and space infrastructure teams to integrate new satellite buses and capabilities into Cockpit.
- Support internal users of Cockpit (operators, test engineers, solutions engineers) by improving APIs, workflows, and debugging tools.
- Have the opportunity to take part in spacecraft operations through SatDevOps rotations, occasionally helping investigate anomalies and supporting real‑time incident response when needed.

Must Haves:

- 4+ years of relevant backend software engineering experience in production environments
- Solid Python development experience in a production environment.
- Experience with Docker and container‑based development.
- Hands‑on experience with backend web development frameworks (e.g., Django, Flask, FastAPI, etc.).
- Proven API design skills (designing, documenting, and maintaining HTTP/GraphQL/REST‑style APIs).

Nice to Haves:

- Experience with Django and/or GraphQL.
- Strong database fundamentals and practical experience (e.g., Postgres, time‑series DBs).
- Exposure to Kubernetes in production.
- Familiarity with InfluxDB / TimescaleDB or other time‑series systems.
- Background in mission‑critical, distributed, or real‑time systems (space or otherwise).

Who We Are: Founded in 2017, Loft provides governments, companies, and research institutions with a fast, reliable, and simple way to deploy missions in orbit.

We integrate, launch, and operate spacecraft, offering end-to-end missions as a service across Earth observation, IoT connectivity, on-orbit AI, national security missions, and more. Leveraging our existing space infrastructure and an extensive inventory of satellite buses, Loft is reducing years-long integration and launch timelines to months. With more than 30 missions flown, Loft’s flight heritage and proven technologies enable customers to focus on their mission objectives.

With a growing fleet on track to reach 30 satellites by 2027, we are scaling up quickly across our offices in San Francisco, CA | Golden, CO | and Toulouse, France to meet accelerating demand for space infrastructure.

## About Loft Orbital Solutions

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Loft Orbital is a space infrastructure company that provides simple, fast, and reliable ways for customers to deploy and operate physical payloads and software missions in low Earth orbit.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series C – $170M round announced, total funding $326.9M)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States (with additional offices in Golden, Colorado and Toulouse, France)
- **Founded**: 2017
- **Founders**: Not listed in provided sources

## Core Business
- **Primary Industry**: Defense and Space Manufacturing
- **Target Customers**: B2B – commercial space startups, established aerospace and defense primes, cloud and AI companies, and government agencies worldwide (including U..S, France, Canada)
- **Mission/Purpose**: “Space Made Simple” – enabling customers to focus on their mission while Loft handles end-to-end space infrastructure

## Products & Services
- **Physical Payload Missions**: Loft integrates, tests, launches, and operates customer hardware payloads on its standardized satellite platforms (e.g.., optical, hyperspectral, RF sensors).
- **Virtual / Software-Only Missions**: Customers can deploy software directly to Loft’s on-orbit satellites to process and analyze data in near-real time (e..g., AI edge processing via partners like SkyServe, SSCI).
- **YAM (Yet Another Mission)** satellites: A fleet of multi-mission satellite buses available for rapid deployment; Loft maintains an inventory of pre-assembled platforms.
- **Hub & Cockpit**: Proprietary hardware and software abstraction layers that simplify payload integration and satellite operations.
- **Loft Federal**: A FOCI-mitigated division focused on US national security space missions (only US citizens).

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (total funding $326..9M – LinkedIn)
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding $326..9M (8 rounds incl. $170M Series C); Annual Revenue estimated $27..8M (LinkedIn)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Lead seed investor Uncork Capital; partners include Honeywell (Canadian Space Agency mission), Wyvern (Dragonette constellation), Esper, Helsing, SmartSat CRC, EarthDaily ($150M constellation), SkyServe, SSCI, Airbus OneWeb Satellites (15 bus order).
- **Growth Signals**: 270 employees (+14.9% YoY), 41k+ LinkedIn followers (+41.4% YoY), 14 satellites launched, 60+ customers, 15+ AI missions on-orbit, selected as prime contractor for France’s first space-based radar imaging program.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Standardized Satellite Platform**: Uses a commodity satellite bus with custom hardware/software layers, eliminating non-recurring engineering and enabling “turnkey” plug-and-play.
- **Speed to Orbit**: Maintains an inventory of pre-assembled buses and pre-booked launches, drastically reducing lead times compared to traditional aerospace.
- **Flight Heritage**: Over 600 copies of the bus in orbit today, providing proven reliability
- **Misson Agnosticism**: Can fly any payload that fits within standard platform constraints; supports both physical and virtual missions.

## Strategic Focus
- **Expand AI Edge Computing**: Deploying onboard AI processing (e..g., STORM from SkyServe, POET experiment for SDA) to enable near-real-time decision making.
- **National Security Growth**: Loft Federal continues to win US government contracts.
- **Constellation Scale-Up**: Partnering with EarthDaily for $150M satellite constellation; ordering 15 additional buses from Airbus OneWeb.
- **International Partnerships**: Strengthening ties with France (prime contractor for radar imaging) and Canada (SmartSat CRC, Honeywell).

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Collaborative, respectful, professional environment described as “non-negotiable.” Rated 4..5/5 on LinkedIn (35 reviews) with Culture 4.5, Compensation 4.1, Work-Life 3.6, Career 4.2.
- **Wor Environment**: Distributed team with core hubs in San Francisco, Golden (CO), and Toulouse. Supports remote collaboration but roles may require on-site presence (per job listings). Recruiting process involves intro call, technical screening, challenge, and hiring panel.
- **Notable Perks**: Opportunity to work on cutting-edge space infrastructure with a fast-growing company; involvement in both commercial and government missions; international team.

## Sources
1. [loftorbital..com](https://loftorbital.com/)
2. [loftorbital.com/about/](https://loftorbital.com/about/)
3. [loftorbital.com/careers/](https://loftorbital.com/careers/)
4. [jobs.lever.co/loftorbital](https://jobs.lever.co/loftorbital/)
5. [linkedin.com/company/loft-orbital](https://www.linkedin.com/company/loft-orbital)

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