Senior Software Engineer, Command & Control

Responsibilities

• Develop backend Command & Control (C2) software connecting the platform to satellite vehicles.
• Build reliable machine-to-machine communication and systems integrations for heterogeneous spacecraft.
• Work with binary protocols, command and telemetry definitions, data transport, serialization and encoding, stateful communication, hardware interfaces, and remote-system operations.
• Collaborate with a multidisciplinary team to onboard satellite vehicles by translating spacecraft-specific interfaces and protocols into maintainable platform integrations.
• Develop abstractions, tooling, and architecture to support many spacecraft without creating every integration from scratch.
• Design C2 systems that scale across vehicles, protocols, and missions.
• Take ownership of technically ambiguous integration problems through completion.
• Maintain high standards for software quality, resilience, observability, and performance.
• Communicate complex technical information to internal and customer-facing audiences.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 3+ years of professional experience developing software for satellite command and control, telecommunications, networking, robotics, embedded systems, industrial automation, IoT, defense systems, or similarly complex machine-to-machine or hardware-software systems.
• Proficiency in backend or systems programming languages such as Python and Rust.
• Experience building software that communicates with, controls, or processes data from remote machines, embedded systems, hardware assets, or other complex systems.
• Experience implementing or integrating machine-to-machine communication protocols, including binary serialization, framing, packetization, transport, message routing, sequencing, acknowledgements, error handling, and state management.
• Experience with real-time or embedded software, distributed systems, networking, telecommunications, robotics, IoT, industrial systems, or hardware/software integration.
• Demonstrated experience taking a protocol, interface specification, or hardware integration from documentation through implementation, testing, troubleshooting, and production operation.
• Strong technical analysis, systems thinking, troubleshooting, adaptability, cross-functional communication, and ownership skills.

Nice-to-haves

• Satellite communication standards such as CCSDS, CSP, CFDP, and IP.
• Structured command, telemetry, or interface definitions such as XTCE and MIB.
• Encryption algorithms including AES-256 GCM, AES-256 CFB, AES-256 ECB, NSA Type 1 PEGASUS, and NSA Type 1 CARIBOU.
• Kubernetes platforms and DevSecOps practices.
• Relational or time-series databases.
• Git and GitHub or similar version-control workflows.
• Open-source software experience.
• Aerospace experience; experience in adjacent industries is also relevant.

Compensation and Benefits

• Hybrid schedule with two days per week in the Arvada, CO, Washington, D.C., or Seattle, WA office and significant remote work.