Own Ground Segment Services: Develop and maintain high-reliability services for telemetry ingestion, scaling, distribution, and commanding.
Deliver operator-grade UIs and dashboards that optimize 'ops time' and reduce cognitive load across operations phases.
Build tools for flight-software simulations, device emulators, and automated tests for fast, safe iteration.
Design, implement, and productionize software for mission and ground software teams, standardizing CI/CD pipelines and service templates.
Create robust deployment patterns for lab benches, test stands, and mission networks, implementing safe rollout strategies.
Benefits
Eligible for stock options and/or long-term cash awards.
On-site work environment in El Segundo, CA.
Full Job Description
About This Role
The Senior Mission Software Engineer is responsible for Varda's critical ground segment software, and the platform it runs on which enables spacecraft operations. We operate at the intersection of telemetry and commanding, data acquisition and distribution, mission control interfaces, simulation and test automation, with reliable deployment across lab, test range, and mission operations environments. You'll work hands-on with flight software, avionics, RF/ground systems, and mission ops. Responsibilities
Own Ground Segment Services: Develop and maintain high-reliability services for telemetry ingestion, scaling, distribution, and commanding. Ensure deterministic behavior for real-time operations and post-flight analysis.
Mission Control Interfaces: Deliver operator-grade UIs and dashboards that optimize "ops time" and reduce cognitive load across integration, test, and on-orbit operations phases.
Simulation and Test Automation: Build tools to run flight-software simulations, device emulators, and scenario-based automated tests - enabling fast, safe iteration for avionics, GNC, and operations teams.
Build the Mission Platform: Design, implement, and productionize software for mission and ground software teams. Standardize CI/CD pipelines, artifact management, service templates, infrastructure-as-code, simulation and hardware-in-the-loop frameworks, test harnesses, and observability - all delivered as self-service tooling.
Deployments Across Environments: Create robust deployment patterns for lab benches, test stands, and mission networks. Implement safe rollout/rollback strategies and air-gapped or limited-connectivity deployment approaches.
Basic Qualifications
Bachelor's degree in computer science, math, physics, engineering or equivalent technical experience in safety critical software.
5+ years of experience in the development of spacecraft or similar safety critical software.
Expertise with development in Python, along with a strong understanding of the language concepts.
Have strong systems fundamentals: concurrency, networking, performance, reliability.
Experience building real-time data acquisition, scaling, and distribution services - low-latency messaging, time-series and relational stores.
Hands-on experience with CI/CD, dependency/build systems, and infrastructure-as-code.
