--- title: 'Onboard Software Engineer - Peripheral Services at Loft Orbital Solutions' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/onboard-software-engineer-peripheral-services-loft-orbital-solutions-toulouse-ncjrgxn5mh2p' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-11-03' --- # Onboard Software Engineer - Peripheral Services at Loft Orbital Solutions - **Company:** Loft Orbital Solutions - **Location:** Toulouse, France - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** onsite - **Posted:** 2026-09-22 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-03 - **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/loftorbital/e2428032-ee1a-4e34-a331-914aea52a93f ## Job description Wanna join the adventure? Loft's AI for Space group is building the stack that runs real machine learning in orbit; turning raw sensor data into decisions on the satellite itself, so insight reaches the customer in minutes instead of hours. The AI Engineering team is where models meet the spacecraft. We own the full path from a partner's trained model to something that actually runs — fast — on flight hardware: compiling ONNX models into optimized engines for each accelerator, the Space Inference Engine and its execution providers, the SDK that packages models for flight, and the perf tooling that proves a model fits its power, thermal, and latency budget before it ever leaves the ground. As we open the platform to a growing roster of defense and Earth-observation partners, the team's scope and the range of silicon we target are expanding fast. As our ML Runtime Engineer, you'll own model compilation and the performance tooling behind it. We're looking for someone scrappy — the kind of engineer who takes an unfamiliar model and an unforgiving power budget, digs into the graph, and gets it running on real hardware without waiting for the path to be handed to them. You'll move between model compilation, runtime internals, quantization, and hardware-in-the-loop CI, sometimes in the same afternoon. 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 and integration 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 distribution and adoption of the 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: - 3+ years' software engineering experience, using programming languages including C/C++ (C++11 or newer) and Python. - Proficiency with Git and collaborative development workflows - Experience with continuous integration tools (GitLab-CI, Jenkins, or similar). - Knowledge of build systems (e.g., Make, CMake). - Understanding of distributed architecture. - Familiarity with networking protocols (e.g., UDP, TCP, IP) and POSIX standards. - Experience in developing multi-threaded applications. - Previous team leader or manager role 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) - Experience with space systems and concepts 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 - [Embedded Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/embedded-software-engineer-loft-orbital-solutions-golden-cqs233wc83ja) — Golden, CO - [Satellite Systems Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/satellite-systems-engineer-loft-orbital-solutions-abu-dhabi-xxabe4e5hkse) — Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates - [Senior Project Engineer — Facilities & EHS](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-project-engineer-facilities-ehs-loft-orbital-solutions-abu-dhabi-brc348egh7jg) — Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates - [Onboard Software Solutions Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/onboard-software-solutions-engineer-loft-orbital-solutions-abu-dhabi-7k7m4kyr6tk6) — Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates - [Industrial Engineer, Senior](https://feeny.ai/job/industrial-engineer-senior-loft-orbital-solutions-abu-dhabi-6v22gfnt29jj) — Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates - [Supplier Management Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/supplier-management-manager-loft-orbital-solutions-abu-dhabi-vssb67368tqs) — Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates - [Ground Software Engineer - Core](https://feeny.ai/job/ground-software-engineer-core-loft-orbital-solutions-san-francisco-1g5vs8fyn1pa) — San Francisco, CA - [Ground Software Engineer - Core](https://feeny.ai/job/ground-software-engineer-core-loft-orbital-solutions-golden-qjhxw7jtsf3m) — Golden, CO - [Ground Software Engineer - Core](https://feeny.ai/job/ground-software-engineer-core-loft-orbital-solutions-toulouse-0e0dh0n47mzp) — Toulouse, France - [IT Administrator](https://feeny.ai/job/it-administrator-loft-orbital-solutions-abu-dhabi-hsr76x8qdg3q) — Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates