---
title: 'Software Engineer- Early Career (Platform) at Northwood Space'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-early-career-platform-northwood-space-torrance-2jx4vpwx2y7t'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-05'
---

# Software Engineer- Early Career (Platform) at Northwood Space

- **Company:** Northwood Space
- **Location:** Torrance, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Posted:** 2026-10-29
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-05
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/northwoodspace/f7b9e8d5-7368-4a54-b445-ff647f12b1b6

## Job description

About Northwood: Northwood is a modern space infrastructure company bringing the benefits of space to the masses through advanced communications technology. We are building a global network of phased array ground stations that enable real-time, reliable communication for satellite missions such as national security, global connectivity, and disaster response. With a vertically integrated approach, Northwood designs, builds, and rapidly deploys scalable systems that power the next generation of space missions. If you like solving complex challenges and seeing your work deployed around the world with real impact, Northwood is the place to do it.

## Role

Northwood engineers and operators run hardware and software across a global network of antenna ground stations and the cloud services behind them. No one sells a platform for running a network like this at scale, so Northwood builds its own. Platform Engineering builds the software that takes Northwood products from first prototype to full operation. That covers how code is built, tested, and released, how every site and service is monitored, and how hardware in remote locations is brought online, updated, and kept healthy. Every one of these problems has to work across every site, service, and customer at once. Few organizations get to build this kind of software in house. What this team builds will shape how a global network of antennas is operated for the missions that depend on it. Every new antenna, site, and customer Northwood adds runs on this platform, and it sets how fast the network can grow. As an early-career Software Engineer on the Platform team, you'll ship to real production systems from your first weeks, with close mentorship, and take on more ownership as you show you're ready. You don't need to know every part of the stack today. You need to learn fast, reason clearly through problems you haven't seen before, and care a lot about what you build.

## Key areas of focus

You'll work across these areas over time. No one is expected to own everything listed.

- Delivery and release
- Build the CI and release pipelines that take code from commit to production, in the cloud and at ground stations around the world.
- Make shipping safe and continuous, with staged rollouts and fast rollback, so no one has to test in production.
- Simulation and test
- Build simulated ground stations and lab test benches running real hardware, so every release is tested against realistic conditions before it reaches a live site.
- Build tools that replay real recorded data through the system to catch problems early.
- Ground station operations
- Automate how new sites are brought online, configured, and updated, in remote locations with few or no people on site.
- Write software that runs on the servers that sit next to the antennas, and keep a global fleet of them healthy.
- Observability
- Build the monitoring, logging, and alerting that show the health of every service and site.
- Turn raw telemetry into signals engineers and operators can act on before a problem reaches a customer.
- Internal platform and tools
- Build the backend services and web interfaces engineers and operators use every day to create, ship, and run software.
- Talk directly with the people who use what you build, and turn their feedback into improvements.
- Infrastructure and security
- Define the cloud and site infrastructure the platform runs on as code.
- Build identity, secrets management, and least-privilege access into the platform, so every service gets them by default.

## Basic Qualifications

- 0 to 2 years of professional software experience. It doesn't have to be a full-time role. Internships, research, open source, and projects outside the classroom all count, so tell us about them.
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, math, or a related field. This is a soft requirement: if you didn't pursue a degree, tell us what you did instead.
- Has written real software in at least one general-purpose language (such as Python, Go, Rust, TypeScript, or C++) beyond required coursework.
- Has built and shipped something other people used or relied on.
- Has solved a hard technical problem largely on their own, such as debugging a non-obvious failure or designing a system from scratch.

## Preferred Qualifications

We don't expect you to have everything below. We do expect you to go deep where your strengths are, and to take ownership of what you work on.

- Languages: proficiency in one or more languages (such as Python, Go, Rust, or TypeScript), with opinions about which one fits which job.
- Full stack: has built a backend API and a frontend that uses it (such as a React app on a REST API).
- Shipping software: exposure to CI pipelines (such as GitHub Actions or GitLab CI), containers (such as Docker), a cloud platform (such as AWS), or infrastructure as code (such as Terraform or CloudFormation).
- Systems: day-to-day comfort with Linux and the command line, or coursework and projects in operating systems, networking, or distributed systems.
- Tools for others: built a tool, script, or library other developers used.
- Hardware and space: projects involving hardware, embedded systems, RF, robotics, or space, such as a CubeSat, rocketry, or robotics team.
- Drive: a track record of going past what was asked, such as side projects, competitions, research, or things built because you wanted to.
- AI tools: comfort with AI coding tools (such as Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor).

Additional Information: If you need a reasonable accommodation as part of your application for employment or interviews with us, please let us know.

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Northwood Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Northwood Space is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

## About Northwood Space

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Building a global ground network for the future of space communications — delivering vertically integrated hardware, software, and shared infrastructure that lets space missions go from concept to live data delivery in months instead of years.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series B, raised $100M in January 2026)
- **Headquarters**: Los Angeles, California, United States (additional offices in Torrance, CA; Washington, D.C.; with presence in the United Kingdom and India)
- **Founded**: 2022
- **Founders**: Bridgit Mendler (CEO, Cofounder), Griffin Cleverly (Co-Founder, CTO), Shaurya Luthra (Co-Founder, Head of Digital)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Defense and Space Manufacturing; Space-to-ground infrastructure; Satellite communications.
- **Target customers**: B2B and B2G — commercial satellite operators, government agencies (e.g., U.S. Space Force), and defense customers.
- **Mission**: “Take space missions further, faster” by building resilient, cloud-like ground infrastructure for the next century of space operations.

## Products & Services
- **Hardware (Antennas built for scale)** : Phased-array antenna systems designed for volume manufacturing and rapid deployment (hours, not months).
- **Network (Shared infrastructure)** : A horizontally scalable, dynamic capacity provisioning network that eliminates single points of failure and works across multiple orbits and frequency bands.
- **Software (Orchestration intelligence)** : The intelligence layer that schedules contacts, routes data, and manages the entire ground network — enabling on-demand capacity without traditional procurement cycles.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed.
- **Key Metric**: Total funding raised — **$136.4M** across four rounds (Grant $100K in 2023, Seed $6.3M in 2024, Series A $30M in 2025, Series B $100M in 2026).
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Andreessen Horowitz (led Seed, Series A, and Series B), Founders Fund (Seed), Washington Harbour Partners (led Series B and a prior round). Strategic partners include government agencies and commercial launch providers.
- **Growth Signals**:
  - Headcount grew **117.6% YoY** to 65 employees (as of mid-2026).
  - 48 active job postings (+140% YoY increase).
  - Successfully tested next-generation phased array antennas.
  - Won a U.S. Space Force contract (mentioned in news snippets).
  - Expanded to three U.S. offices and international presence (UK, India).

## Competitive Advantages
- **Vertically integrated ground stack** — from antenna hardware to network orchestration software — collapses deployment timelines from years to months/days.
- **Hardware that deploys in hours** and scales like cloud computing, avoiding traditional multi-year procurement cycles.
- **Resilient, shared infrastructure** designed for multiple orbits and frequency bands, reducing single points of failure.
- **Strong talent pipeline** from SpaceX, Anduril, Tesla, Palantir, and other top aerospace/defense firms.

## Strategic Focus
- **Scale the global ground network** by deploying more sites and increasing capacity for both government and commercial customers.
- **Volume manufacturing** of antenna systems to meet surging demand.
- **Deepen partnerships** with defense and intelligence agencies (National Security Space) and commercial satellite operators.
- **Continue hiring aggressively** across engineering, operations, site management, and business development.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Values include humility, bias to action, autonomy, and exceptionalism. Teams are trusted to own their work and make decisions.
- **Impact**: Work is deployed globally — antennas built in Torrance, software orchestrated from LA, sites stood up worldwide.
- **Benefits**: Competitive salary, meaningful equity, comprehensive medical/dental/vision, employer-sponsored 401(k), paid parental leave, commuter benefits, sponsored clubs and quarterly events.
- **Work Model**: Likely on-site for hardware roles (Torrance, El Segundo, Washington D.C.); some software roles may offer flexibility. Two main office hubs: Los Angeles (HQ) and Washington D.C.
- **Engineering culture**: Fast iteration, real-world deployment, cross-functional collaboration. “If you like building quickly and seeing your work deployed in locations around the globe, we want you at Northwood.”

## Sources
1. [northwoodspace.io](https://www.northwoodspace.io/)
2. [northwoodspace.io/about-us](https://www.northwoodspace.io/about-us)
3. [northwoodspace.io/careers](https://www.northwoodspace.io/careers)
4. [LinkedIn – Northwood](https://www.linkedin.com/company/northwood-space)
5. [Crunchbase – Northwood Space](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/northwood-space)

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