Senior Ground Software Engineer
At Reflect, you will be expected to move fast, have a lot of ownership and, most importantly, be able to effect change. If this excites you, we are interested in hearing about your best work and accomplishments across any domain and from any points in your life.
About the Role
As a Senior Satellite Ground Software Engineer, your core responsibilities will be to build and maintain the software our operations team uses to fly the spacecraft, owning major pieces of the ground segment from design through deployment and operation. This role blends hands-on software development with platform and network engineering.
You'll develop the services that move telemetry and commands between our satellites and mission control center, build the tools and automation that make operations safe and efficient, and integrate GSaaS providers into a reliable end-to-end system. You will deploy and operate what you build, troubleshoot issues that span software, networks, and hardware, and mentor other engineers on the team.
Responsibilities
Design, develop, and maintain ground software for satellite operations, including telemetry ingestion, processing, and display, and command generation and uplink workflows
Lead the design of operator-facing tools and dashboards to support the operations team
Design and build automation for pass execution, routine commanding, and alerting to reduce manual operator workload
Deploy and operate ground software on AWS and Kubernetes, maintaining CI/CD pipelines, configuration management, and infrastructure as code
Support integration of ground station hardware and network interfaces, including radios, routers, and antenna controllers
Lead Ground Station-as-a-Service (GSaaS) integrations and validate end-to-end data paths between satellites, ground stations, and cloud infrastructure
Validate ground software against simulators and test environments prior to operational use
Drive root-cause resolution of issues spanning software, networks, ground stations, and mission systems
Mentor engineers and review designs and code
Provide 24/7 on-call support for mission-critical ground systems
Qualifications
Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Computer Science or a related technical field, or equivalent experience
5+ years of experience developing ground systems software (services, APIs, and applications)
Experience owning a system end to end, from design through deployment and on-call
Experience deploying and operating software on AWS, including container orchestration with Kubernetes and CI/CD systems
Strong understanding of networking protocols, routing, VPNs, and secure connectivity
Knowledge of satellite ground systems, including ground station networking, antenna interfaces, and RF subsystems
Experience working with Ground Station-as-a-Service (GSaaS) providers
Experience building services around databases and real-time data (relational or time-series)
Familiarity with Linux environments and command-line tools
Strong programming and scripting skills (Python, C++ preferred)
Experience with DevOps tools and practices (Git, Docker, CI/CD)
Experience building software for multi-satellite constellation operations is a plus
CCSDS protocol experience and ground station network integrations are a plus
Even if you don’t meet 100% of the above qualifications, we are likely still interested in hearing from you. Hiring exceptional individuals is our #1 priority, and we believe that exceptional people often have highly unusual backgrounds.
We are also interested in carving out unique roles for unconventional people that we are excited about working with.
Benefits
Reflect Orbital’s success will hinge on our team, which is why our compensation and benefits plan is designed to reward our employees and support their families as generously as we’re able.
Broad choice of medical/dental/vision coverage, Reflect covers 100% of each base-policy
Access to HSA, FSA, and 401K
Unlimited paid time off, two-weeks per year encouraged
Healthy lunches provided daily
Equal Opportunity
Reflect Orbital is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Reflect Orbital 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.
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