We are seeking a highly experienced Staff Software Developer to lead the design and evolution of Kepler's backend systems and platform architecture. This role operates at a company-wide level, driving technical strategy, enabling cross-team execution, and ensuring that our systems scale to meet the growing demands of Kepler's satellite network and mission control operations. As a Staff Developer, you will work across multiple teams to solve complex technical challenges, guide architectural decisions, and improve engineering effectiveness. You will play a key role in shaping long-term technical direction while ensuring near-term delivery remains efficient and aligned. Key Responsibilities: - Lead the design and evolution of large-scale backend systems supporting Kepler's satellite network infrastructure and mission control software - Drive architectural decisions that span multiple teams and services, ensuring scalability, reliability, and maintainability - Identify and lead high-impact, cross-functional initiatives, including system-wide performance improvements, reliability efforts, and platform standardization - Partner with product, operations, and leadership to translate business opportunities into technical strategy and execution plans - Define and improve engineering processes, development workflows, and operational practices across teams - Own and guide long-term technical roadmaps, balancing immediate delivery needs with strategic investments - Act as a technical authority and advisor, providing guidance on complex system design, tradeoffs, and risk management - Mentor senior engineers and help grow technical leadership across the organization - Drive alignment across teams by influencing without authority and building consensus on technical direction Required Skills & Qualifications: - 8+ years of professional software development experience, with a strong focus on backend systems - Proven experience designing and operating large-scale, distributed systems - Demonstrated ability to lead cross-team technical initiatives and influence engineering direction - Strong expertise in system architecture, scalability, reliability, and performance optimization - Deep experience with Python and modern backend development practices - Experience with cloud platforms, containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), and infrastructure-as-code - Strong understanding of CI/CD systems and developer productivity tooling - Ability to navigate ambiguity and drive clarity in complex technical and organizational environments - Excellent communication skills, with the ability to engage both technical and non-technical stakeholders Bonus Points: - Experience working on mission-critical or high-reliability systems - Familiarity with satellite operations, ground systems, or aerospace environments - Experience designing platform-level systems or internal developer platforms - Strong background in observability, incident response, and reliability engineering - Experience with event-driven and distributed messaging systems (Kafka, Pulsar, etc.) - Knowledge of networking concepts and delay-tolerant networking - Track record of improving engineering processes and organizational effectiveness