Lead Software Engineer - Gov Platforms at WindBorne Systems (Redwood City, CA)
WindBorne Systems· Redwood City, CA· $150k–$220k·
Role details
401(K) · Dental Insurance · Health Insurance · Vision Insurance · Unlimited PTO · Stock Option Plan · Office Food And Beverages
Summary
Architect and implement government-specific software platforms, ensuring security, compliance, and performance for federal customers. The role involves adapting data pipelines and APIs to meet rigorous regulatory standards while serving as the technical bridge between core technology and government stakeholders.
Job description
WindBorne Systems is supercharging weather forecasts with a unique proprietary data source: a global constellation of next-generation smart weather balloons targeting the most critical atmospheric data. We design, manufacture, and operate our own balloons, using the data they collect to generate otherwise unattainable weather intelligence.
Our mission is to eliminate weather uncertainty, and in the process help humanity adapt to climate change, be that predicting hurricanes or speeding the adoption of renewables. We are building a future in which the planet is instrumented by thousands of our microballoons, eliminating gaps in our understanding of the planet and giving people and businesses the information they need to make critical decisions. The founding team of Stanford engineers was named Forbes 2019 30 under 30 and is backed by top-tier investors, including Khosla Ventures and Footwork VC.
We're hiring a Senior Software Engineer to own government implementations across multiple WindBorne software platforms. You'll be the technical bridge between our core technology and government customers, ensuring our systems meet rigorous compliance standards while delivering exceptional value. This role requires equal parts technical depth, attention to regulatory detail, and customer communication skills.
We’re looking for someone who has built software under the weight of real compliance requirements—FedRAMP, ITAR, NIST 800-53, or equivalent frameworks that don't forgive shortcuts. This person treats compliance as an architectural constraint, not a checkbox exercise, and knows how to design systems that are both secure and performant. Auditable doesn't mean slow in their world.
If you thrive in the tension between competing demands, like performance vs. security, speed vs. compliance, and flexibility vs. standardization, we want to hear from you. If you make pragmatic trade-offs, ship solutions that work, and know when a problem needs more hands or a different approach, we want to hear from you. If ambiguity doesn't slow you down, but is the environment where you do your best work, we want to hear from you!
RESPONSIBILITIES
In this role, you'll architect and implement government-specific versions of our software platforms, ensuring they meet security, compliance, and operational requirements unique to federal customers. This means adapting our data pipelines, APIs, and analysis tools to work within government infrastructure constraints while maintaining performance and reliability. You'll own the entire development lifecycle, working directly with government stakeholders to understand their technical requirements, troubleshooting complex integration issues, and delivering solutions that meet their mission-critical needs.
SKILLS AND QUALIFICATIONS
- At least five years of software engineering experience with demonstrated success owning high-priority software development efforts
- Ability to work across full stack, frontend (Ruby on Rails, Postgres, etc.) to backend (Python, Rust) and all the bits between
- Strong background in data engineering—building pipelines, processing large datasets, optimizing data storage, and retrieval
- Proven experience developing software that adheres to stringent security compliance standards, from the government, financial industry, healthcare, or similar
- Written and verbal communication acumen suitable for a customer-facing role, for both technical and non-technical audiences
- Strong problem-solving and debugging skills across the stack
- Ability to obtain a security clearance
Nice to Have
- Experience with atmospheric, geospatial, or sensor data systems
- Familiarity with cloud platforms in government contexts (AWS GovCloud, Azure Government)
- Background in systems programming, real-time data processing, or scientific computing
- Prior work in aerospace, defense, or climate tech
- Active security clearance
BENEFITS
- 401(k)
- Dental insurance
- Health insurance
- Vision insurance
- Unlimited PTO
- Stock Option Plan
- Office food and beverages
Salary
- $150k-220k** We are considering a range of backgrounds and experience levels for this position and adjust our offers accordingly to be competitive with market rates.
LOCATION
1600 Bridge Pwky, Redwood City, CA. Open to remote candidates
Why work at WindBorne Systems
- Planetary impact: Every line of code and hardware design directly improves weather prediction, saves lives, and advances climate science.
- Engineering culture: “The Loonie Way” – high agency, obsessive problem‑solving, building from scratch, and iterating relentlessly. The team includes alumni from Project Loon, Stanford, and top aerospace/tech companies windbornesystems.com/careers.
- Hard problems: Autonomous systems in extreme environments, real‑time data pipelines, and cutting‑edge AI.
- Work environment: Based in Redwood Shores, CA; technology is invented, designed, and manufactured in the US. Roles are likely on‑site (many engineering and operations positions specify location). Offices are collaborative and mission‑focused.
- Growth: 38 open roles across engineering, operations, business development, and more – a fast‑scaling startup with multi‑year runway windbornesystems.com/open-roles.