--- title: 'Backend Engineer - Oort at Loft Orbital Solutions' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/backend-engineer-oort-loft-orbital-solutions-san-francisco-p5jtm7xkfnx1' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-08' --- # Backend Engineer - Oort at Loft Orbital Solutions - **Company:** Loft Orbital Solutions - **Location:** San Francisco, CA - **Compensation:** $140k–$190k - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** onsite - **Posted:** 2026-07-02 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-08 - **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/loftorbital/3eab73f0-6db9-48ef-ae55-962c3b88840e ## Job description Wanna join the adventure? Loft Orbital is looking for a Backend Engineer to join our Oort team. Oort is our central web platform—a unified environment that consolidates all infrastructure data and tools, empowering Loft to streamline, integrate, and manage the entire mission lifecycle with unprecedented efficiency and transparency. Oort bridges the gap between diverse mission phases, operational teams, and business processes by centralizing essential information and workflows, establishing a standard for space mission execution at scale. About this role: - Build, and operate features across backend services that collect, manage, and surface critical infrastructure data for the full Loft mission lifecycle. - Design and implement APIs and integrations that connect tooling and data across teams and systems. - Partner with program management, satellite engineering, operations, and business stakeholders to analyze and understand mission design, program, and business processes—and translate them into intuitive, reliable software. - Apply a product mindset across the stack: seek user feedback, identify friction in both backend workflows and UI/UX, and deliver solutions that meaningfully reduce complexity for the people and teams building and operating space infrastructure. Must Haves: - Demonstrated proficiency in Python for backend engineering. - Practical experience using Docker for containerization and deployment in scalable environments. - Experience in backend architecture, encompassing API design and robust database interactions. - You have hands‑on experience building, operating, or integrating technologies for space missions and a passion for making complex, multi‑team technical endeavors more efficient and standardized. - You thrive on dissecting intricate business and technical processes, mapping them end‑to‑end—highlighting friction points and opportunities for unique solutions. - You excel in team environments, communicate complex ideas with clarity, and advocate for seamless collaboration between engineering, operations, and business functions. - You are a proactive problem solver and a respectful challenger of assumptions, comfortable owning features from design through production operations. - Fluency in English. Nice to Haves: - Experience in the design, modeling, or analysis of space missions, with an understanding of mission lifecycle complexities. - Proficiency with Django and GraphQL, and familiarity with modern cloud infrastructure platforms (e.g., GCP/AWS, Kubernetes). - Familiarity with testing tools across the stack (e.g., PyTest, Jest, React Testing Library, Playwright/Cypress) and strong CI/CD practices. Some of Our Awesome Benefits: - 100% company-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance option for employees and dependents - Flexible Spending (FSA) and Health Savings (HSA) Accounts offered with an employer contribution to the HSA - 100% employer paid Life, AD&D, Short-Term, and Long-Term Disability insurance - Flexible Time Off policy for vacation and sick leave, and 12 paid holidays - 401(k) plan and equity options - Daily catered lunches and snacks in office - International exposure to our team in France - Fully paid parental leave; 14 weeks for birthing parent and 10 weeks for non-birthing parent - Carrot Fertility provides comprehensive, inclusive fertility healthcare and family-forming benefits with financial support - Off-sites and many social events and celebrations - Relocation assistance when applicable *Research shows that while men apply to jobs where they meet an average of 60% of the criteria, women and other underrepresented people tend to only apply when they meet 100% of the qualifications. At Loft, we value respectful debate and people who aren’t afraid to challenge assumptions.  We strongly encourage you to apply, even if you don’t check all the boxes. ## Who We Are Loft: Space Made Simple. 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. As an international company your resume will be reviewed by people across our offices so please attach a copy in English. ## 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. 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