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Onboard Software Engineer Hyperdrive

Loft Orbital Solutions

Job Location:

San Francisco, CA - USA

Yearly Salary: USD 155000 - 225000

Posted: 24 September 2026 (15 hours ago)

Application Deadline: 22 December 2026

Vacancies: 1 Vacancy

Job Summary

Wanna join the adventure

Lofts 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 logicfrom 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 youll 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 (C11 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:

100% company-paid medical dental and vision insurance option for employees and dependents
Flexible Spending (FSA) and Health Savings (HSA) Accounts offered with an employer contribution to the HSA
100% employer paid Life AD&D Short-Term and Long-Term Disability insurance
Flexible Time Off policy for vacation and sick leave and 12 paid holidays
401(k) plan and equity options
Daily catered lunches and snacks
International exposure to our team in France
Fully paid parental leave; 14 weeks for primary caregiver and 10 weeks for secondary caregiver
Carrot Fertility provides comprehensive inclusive fertility healthcare and family-forming benefits with financial support
Off-sites and many social events and celebrations
Relocation assistance when applicable

$155000 - $225000 a year

State law requires us to tell you the base compensation range for this role which is $155000- $225000 per year. This is determined by your education experience knowledge skills and abilities. The salary range for this role is intentionally wide as we evaluate individuals based on their unique experience and abilities to fit our needs. Most importantly we are excited to meet you and see if you are a great fit for our team. What we cantquantify for you are the exciting challenges supportive team and amazing culture we enjoy.

*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 arent afraid to challenge assumptions. We strongly encourage you to apply even if you dont 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 Lofts 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.

We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process such as reviewing applications analyzing resumes or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed please contact us.

Required Experience:

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