--- title: 'Onboard Software Engineer - Hyperdrive at Loft Orbital Solutions' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/onboard-software-engineer-hyperdrive-loft-orbital-solutions-toulouse-g70bfdkv6z5m' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-10-20' --- # Onboard Software Engineer - Hyperdrive at Loft Orbital Solutions - **Company:** Loft Orbital Solutions - **Location:** Toulouse, France - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** onsite - **Posted:** 2026-09-22 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-20 - **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/loftorbital/9182f41f-2d8c-48ff-b914-49a408426e9e ## Job description Wanna join the adventure? Loft’s Onboard Software group provides the on-orbit software that powers our core products. This is responsible for monitoring and control of major space program elements, including: Flight Products computational environments (including physical and virtual processors); Interfaces with external equipment (imagers, RF, ISL); and Interfaces with the spacecraft bus. Hyperdrive is the common platform powering every onboard service across our spacecraft. The team builds the core capabilities other onboard services need to run mission logic—from interactions and housekeeping to events, automated fault detection and recovery, and lifecycle management. By making complex spacecraft software consistent, observable, and resilient, Hyperdrive helps teams move faster while keeping missions safe in orbit. About this role: - Design, implement, and refine software with a high degree of ownership, driving impactful features from concept through delivery while ensuring robustness and reliability. - Review code, provide clear feedback, and enforce adherence to established development processes, style guides, and design standards to maintain consistency and quality across the codebase. - Design and implement unit tests for both self-authored and peer-authored code. - Utilize version control systems to create feature branches, push code, and merge approved code into production branches. - Contribute to the onboard software architecture through design proposals and collaborative review - Participate in the review and enhancement of software development processes and design standards. - Coordinate with downstream teams on the release, distribution and adoption of latest releases. - In addition to responsibilities within onboard software, you’ll have the opportunity to directly be involved in operating our on-orbit fleet of satellites. Must Haves: - 5+ years' software engineering experience, using programming languages including C/C++ (C++11 or newer) and Python. - Experience with version control systems such as Git - Experience with continuous integration tools (e.g., GitLab-CI, Jenkins). - Experience with build systems (e.g., Make, CMake). - Experience with library management and ABI/API version control. - Understanding of distributed architecture. - Familiarity with networking protocols (e.g., UDP, TCP, IP) and POSIX standards. - Experience in developing multi-threaded applications. Nice to Haves: - Familiarity with additional programming languages, such as Go or Rust. - Experience with embedded Linux operation, including Yocto, device trees, systemd, and Linux on ARM platforms. - Proficiency with unit test frameworks (e.g., pytest, Googletest, Unity) - Experience with middleware framework (gRPC, ZMQ/NATS, etc.) - Experience with containerization technologies (Docker, K3S, systemd-nspawn) Some of Our Awesome Benefits: - Equity, we want you to have an active role in our success - Up to 35 days of Paid Time Off (vacations & RTT ) and flexible working hours, we want you to be at your best - Health and life insurance, we care about your health - Lunch Vouchers, because let’s be honest, we love food! (we even have a slack channel about it [#loft-gourmand](https://loftorbital.slack.com/archives/C02G64537DF)) - Cross-office travel opportunities between San Francisco, Colorado, and Toulouse to learn from our differences - Company and team off-sites and many other events to work & celebrate together - Relocation assistance to Toulouse 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. [linkedin.com/company/loft-orbital](https://www.linkedin.com/company/loft-orbital) ## Other roles at Loft Orbital Solutions - [Director of Manufacturing (Design-to-Manufacturing)](https://feeny.ai/job/director-of-manufacturing-design-to-manufacturing-loft-orbital-solutions-abu-b02vzsj8vqyh) — Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates - [Satellite Operations Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/satellite-operations-engineer-loft-orbital-solutions-abu-dhabi-v2d7v6sv9g6k) — Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates - [Information Systems Data Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/information-systems-data-engineer-loft-orbital-solutions-golden-q0mkpsm1tzr7) — Golden, CO - [Technical Recruiter – Hardware](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-recruiter-hardware-loft-orbital-solutions-san-francisco-xe58jn2cy630) — San Francisco, CA - [Technical Recruiter – Hardware](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-recruiter-hardware-loft-orbital-solutions-golden-c8yk3w62rhks) — Golden, CO - [Technical Sourcer – Hardware](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-sourcer-hardware-loft-orbital-solutions-united-states-nrmte58zf2bn) — United States - [Technical Recruiter – Software](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-recruiter-software-loft-orbital-solutions-golden-q05b8pskfpr2) — Golden, CO - [Technical Recruiter – Software](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-recruiter-software-loft-orbital-solutions-san-francisco-h4e4q9t8avz5) — San Francisco, CA - [Backend Engineer - Mission Operations Services](https://feeny.ai/job/backend-engineer-mission-operations-services-loft-orbital-solutions-toulouse-bqpj0xajje34) — Toulouse, France - [Director, Business Development - Americas](https://feeny.ai/job/director-business-development-americas-loft-orbital-solutions-united-states-y458v3gdxkq4) — United States