Blue Origin

Senior Software Development Engineer

Blue Origin$197K — $276K *
Aerospace & Defense
5 - 7 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 5+ years of professional software development experience
  • Deep experience designing and operating distributed systems
  • Strong proficiency in Go, Python, or JavaScript
  • Experience with CI/CD systems and developer tooling
  • Solid understanding of AWS or comparable cloud platforms
  • Experience managing containerized workloads (Kubernetes, Docker)
  • Proven ability to lead technical design efforts and mentor engineers

Responsibilities

  • Design, develop, and ship platform capabilities for developer experience improvement
  • Own the full software lifecycle from design to production operation
  • Build and integrate AI-powered tools to enhance engineering productivity
  • Balance technical debt and feature delivery across systems
  • Collaborate with engineering teams to identify pain points and deliver solutions
  • Evaluate and select appropriate tools and technologies for the team
  • Contribute to infrastructure and architecture decisions with an awareness of system interactions and trade-offs
  • Drive operational excellence across platforms, including incident response and recovery planning
  • Lead technical design efforts, mentor colleagues, and ensure quality of work
  • Implement security controls and compliance to meet federal regulations

Benefits

  • Medical, dental, and vision insurance
  • Life insurance options, including basic and supplemental
  • Paid parental leave and short/long-term disability
  • 401(k) with company match up to 5%
  • Education Support Program funding
  • Stock options for regular employees working part-time or more
  • Generous paid time off, including four weeks of annual leave and 14 paid holidays
Full Job Description
Application close date:
Applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis until the requisition is closed.

Senior Software Development Engineer

The Developer Platforms team builds and operates the tools and infrastructure that Blue Origin's engineers depend on to design, test, and deliver software every day. From source control to CI/CD to artifact management, we own the systems that make the rest of the company productive. We do this by building platforms that are secure by default (meeting our federal compliance obligations), AI-augmented (accelerating how engineers work), and continuously improving. When we improve the developer experience, every team ships faster, and that acceleration directly supports our mission of building a road to space.

We are seeking team members of all backgrounds who are passionate about space and who have a strong desire to serve on a team that is the backbone of the company. This position will directly impact the history of space exploration and will require your dedicated commitment and detailed attention towards safe and repeatable spaceflight.

As a Senior Software Development Engineer, you will own systems of significant technical depth, lead technical design, and ship software that thousands of engineers depend on daily, including next-generation AI-assisted development capabilities.

Our tech stack at a glance:
  • Amazon Web Services
  • Kubernetes and Docker
  • GitLab (SCM, CI/CD)
  • Artifactory/JFrog
  • Terraform
  • Linux
  • Go, JavaScript, and Python
  • AI/LLM tools (Claude, Codex, etc.)

What makes our engineering team successful?
  • Technical breadth and depth with a strong understanding of emerging trends, including AI-assisted development
  • A strong bias for automating everything and reducing toil
  • Humility and the enthusiasm to learn unfamiliar domains
  • Ownership mentality: you build it, you run it, you improve it
  • A "customer first" mindset, recognizing that your customers are fellow engineers
  • High judgment with technical design decisions and the ability to balance competing priorities
  • The ability to build consensus across teams, champion ideas through to adoption, and lead without authority
  • Comfort operating at the senior level: leading designs, mentoring others, and driving decisions without close oversight

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:
  • Design, develop, and ship platform capabilities that improve the developer experience across Blue Origin (CI/CD pipelines, integrations, self-service tooling, automation)
  • Own the full lifecycle of the software you build, from design through production operation, with no day-to-day oversight
  • Build and integrate AI-powered tools and workflows that accelerate engineering productivity
  • Actively balance technical debt against feature delivery across multiple systems
  • Partner with engineering teams across the company to identify pain points, gather requirements, and deliver platform solutions
  • Evaluate and select tools, platforms, and technologies that best serve the team's mission; drive adoption from prototype through production
  • Contribute to infrastructure and architecture decisions, with a strong awareness of distributed system interactions and trade-offs
  • Implement security controls and compliance solutions to meet federal regulatory requirements
  • Drive operational excellence across the team's platforms, including on-call rotation, incident response, root cause analysis, and recovery planning
  • Lead technical design efforts, mentor teammates, and review the work of others for quality and correctness
  • Scale systems sustainably through automation, and push for changes that improve reliability and developer velocity

Minimum Qualifications:
  • 5+ years of professional software development experience
  • Deep experience designing, building, and operating distributed systems
  • Strong proficiency in one or more of: Go, Python, JavaScript
  • Experience with CI/CD systems, build pipelines, and developer tooling
  • Experience with infrastructure as code (Terraform, CloudFormation, or similar)
  • Solid understanding of AWS or comparable cloud platforms
  • Experience with containerized workloads (Kubernetes, Docker)
  • Demonstrated ability to lead technical design efforts and mentor other engineers
  • Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to debug complex system failures across commercial, open-source, and custom solutions
  • Ability to earn trust, maintain positive and professional relationships, and contribute to a culture of inclusion
  • Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum

Preferred Qualifications:
  • Experience administering or developing against GitLab and/or Artifactory
  • Familiarity with software supply chain security (SBOM, artifact signing, access controls)
  • Experience with federal compliance frameworks (FedRAMP, NIST, CMMC)
  • Experience leveraging AI-assisted development tools (Claude, Codex, etc.) in day-to-day workflows
  • API design experience
  • Knowledge of software-defined networking (VPCs, subnets, firewalls, VPNs)
  • Experience with authentication and authorization workflows between systems (OIDC, SAML, OAuth)
  • Track record of driving cross-team collaboration and representing your team's platform to the broader organization


We are looking for someone to apply their technical expertise, leadership skills, and commitment to quality to positively impact safe human spaceflight. Passion for our mission and vision is required!

Base Pay Range for:
WA applicants is $197,529.00 - $276,539.55

Other site ranges may differ

Culture Statement

Don't meet all desired requirements? Studies have shown that some people are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single desired qualification. At Blue Origin, we are dedicated to building an authentic workplace, so if you're excited about this role but your past experience doesn't align perfectly with every desired qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

Benefits
  • Benefits include: Medical, dental, vision, basic and supplemental life insurance, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability, 401(k) with a company match of up to 5%, and an Education Support Program.
  • Stock Options for all regular employees (working at least 20 hours/week)
  • Paid Time Off: Up to four (4) weeks per year based on weekly scheduled hours, and up to 14 company-paid holidays.
  • Dependent on role type and job level, employees may be eligible for benefits and bonuses based on the company's intent to reward individual contributions and enable them to share in the company's results, or other factors at the company's sole discretion. Bonus amounts and eligibility are not guaranteed and subject to change and cancellation. Please check with your recruiter for more details.


About Blue Origin

Blue Origin is an aerospace company that develops rockets and spacecraft for commercial and government customers. The company's products include the New Shepard suborbital vehicle and the New Glenn orbital rocket. Blue Origin was founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos and is headquartered in Kent, Washington.
Learn more about Blue Origin
Size
3,000 employees
Industry
Founded
2000

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