Full-Time
Customer Delivery Engineer
Loft Orbital
201-500 employees
Turnkey space missions via standardized satellites
Compensation Overview
$130k - $190k/yr
San Francisco, CA, USA + 2 more
More locations: Toulouse, France | Golden, CO, USA
In Person
On-site role at Golden, CO with international exposure; relocation assistance available where applicable.
 DevOps & Infrastructure (1) |
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- 3+ years of experience in an operational engineering environment, such as satellite operations, forward deployed engineering, production infrastructure, backend or platform engineering for live products, or other mission-critical systems
- Experience owning or significantly contributing to production systems operating in real-world, mission-critical environments
- Experience diagnosing and resolving issues in complex, multi-layered systems by tracing failures across interfaces and dependencies
- Strong Python scripting skills and comfort building automation for operational systems
- Experience working across software systems, APIs, and infrastructure such as Docker or similar DevOps environments
- Ability to operate effectively in dynamic, high-pressure environments where requirements evolve and real-time decisions matter
- Strong communication skills and experience working directly with customers or cross-functional stakeholders
- Serve as the primary technical interface for customer missions, aligning on objectives, managing expectations, and ensuring mission success
- Own the full mission lifecycle, from requirements definition and ConOps design through launch, commissioning, on-orbit execution, anomaly triage, and long-term optimization
- Operate Loft spacecraft and payloads on orbit, driving mission execution, anomaly resolution, and performance optimization across the fleet
- Work directly with customers to design and implement mission applications on Loft’s API and operational framework, enabling effective and scalable on-orbit operations
- Develop mission tooling and automation in Python to improve reliability, adoption, and operational scale
- Translate operational experience and customer feedback into concrete product improvements and roadmap input
- Experience with satellite operations, spacecraft commissioning, or AIT
- Experience with spacecraft subsystems such as guidance and control, power systems, or communications systems
- Experience integrating external systems into larger operational architectures
- Experience with configuration languages such as CUE
- Experience operating within a full product lifecycle, translating real-world usage and feedback into system or tooling improvements
- Experience working with international or cross-cultural teams
Loft Orbital provides space infrastructure as a service, offering turnkey access to satellite missions. It maintains an inventory of satellite buses and runs scheduled quarterly launches, enabling clients to deploy missions quickly without managing the technical details. The company handles all mission engineering, operations, and logistics, using identical satellite hardware for each mission to maximize flight heritage and reduce technical risk. Its payload-agnostic technology can support a wide range of payloads on a standard bus, giving it flexibility to serve diverse customers. Loft Orbital's model centers on delivering end-to-end space missions as a service, charging clients for deployment, operation, and the ongoing support needed to build and scale satellite constellations.
Company Size
201-500
Company Stage
Series C
Total Funding
$344M
Headquarters
San Francisco, California
Founded
2016
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- MaiaSpace booked Loft for multiple launches starting 2028, diversifying away from SpaceX rideshares.
- CNES's multi-year contract, worth tens of millions, funds 10 satellites and a Q4 2026 launch.
- EarthDaily's six-satellite 2026 deployment expands Loft's fleet and validates rapid constellation rollouts.
What critics are saying
- SpaceX Transporter sellouts beyond late 2028 expose Loft's launch schedule to third-party bottlenecks.
- MaiaSpace has not flown orbital hardware; a 2027 failure would strand Loft's European redundancy plan.
- Defense-heavy contracts with CNES and DGA create concentration risk if budgets slip after 2026.
What makes Loft Orbital unique
- Loft Orbital turned standardized buses into a turnkey mission factory, now flying 25+ missions.
- CNES picked Loft in April 2026 to prime France's first sovereign radar-imaging program.
- Loft's AI-for-space stack hosts JPL software onboard, tying operations to onboard compute.
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Benefits
Health Insurance
Dental Insurance
Vision Insurance
Life Insurance
Disability Insurance
Health Savings Account/Flexible Spending Account
Unlimited Paid Time Off
Flexible Work Hours
Paid Vacation
Paid Sick Leave
Paid Holidays
Parental Leave
Family Planning Benefits
Fertility Treatment Support
401(k) Retirement Plan
401(k) Company Match
Relocation Assistance
Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
↑ 0%1 year growth
↑ 0%2 year growth
↑ 1%Loft Orbital has procured 10 additional Longbow satellite platforms from Airbus Defence and Space and a high-power Nova bus from Apex to expand its off-the-shelf satellite inventory. The 235kg Longbow platforms can carry payloads up to 85kg and will support constellation deployments for government and defence customers. Loft has now ordered 32 Longbow platforms since 2022. The new 600kg Nova platform provides 1kW of orbit-average power and supports payloads up to 300kg, targeting national security applications including advanced sensing and communications. The contract includes up to 10 buses, with the first delivery scheduled for October 2026. Founded in 2017, Loft has flown over 25 missions, offering governments and companies rapid satellite deployment by integrating, launching, and operating spacecraft on their behalf.
Loft Orbital books multiple launches aboard MaiaSpace rockets. July 8, 2026 US-based satellite operator Loft Orbital has signed a multi-launch agreement with ArianeGroup subsidiary MaiaSpace. Although the announcement provided few details, it did share that the first flight was expected in 2028. In an 8 July press release, MaiaSpace explained that the multi-launch agreement "consolidates its launch manifest," adding that the company has now sold more than half of all capacity for its first three years of operation. To date, all Loft Orbital satellites have been launched aboard SpaceX Transporter rideshare missions. However, according to reporting from SpaceNews, in recent weeks, several customers of these missions have said that SpaceX is not accepting Transporter reservations beyond late 2028 or early 2029. The publication quoted Rocket Lab CFO Adam Spice as saying that there "seems to be a panic setting in." While Loft Orbital has some protection against the loss of Transporter capacity through German launch aggregator Exolaunch, with which it has previously worked and which has secured a dedicated SpaceX flight to market as a rideshare mission, the company is likely looking to add further redundancy to its launch manifest. Beyond redundancy, though, a quote from Emmanuelle Meric, general manager of Loft Orbital's European operations, points to another motivation for selecting a European launch provider. "As Loft Orbital strengthens its work with public and institutional partners in Europe, choosing a trusted European launch provider is a natural step towards supporting a more sovereign and reliable European space ecosystem," said Meric. Despite its growing launch manifest, MaiaSpace has not yet attempted a flight of its Maia rocket. The company is currently working toward a suborbital test flight in early 2027, followed by an initial orbital flight in the second half of 2027. Speaking to European Spaceflight in late June, a MaiaSpace spokesperson explained that it expects to ship elements of the first two flight models to its launch site in French Guiana by the end of the year. Keep European Spaceflight independent. Your donation will help European Spaceflight to continue digging into the stories others miss. Every euro keeps our reporting alive.
Loft Orbital has secured an agreement with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to host and demonstrate AI software on its space infrastructure. The collaboration, part of JPL's Federated Autonomous MEasurement project funded by NASA's Earth Science Technology Office, will advance on-orbit AI capabilities for Earth science remote sensing. Flight demonstrations began in June 2026, with additional deployments scheduled through 2028. JPL's AI software aims to reduce data latency by processing information in near-real time, delivering urgent insights on wildfires, flooding and natural disasters to emergency responders. The spacecraft will demonstrate autonomous tip-and-queue tasking without ground intervention using intersatellite links. Founded in 2017, Loft Orbital has flown over 25 missions and operates facilities in San Francisco, Colorado and Toulouse, France.
A satellite has used a vision-language model to identify features on Earth autonomously for the first time, marking a significant milestone in space-based AI. The demonstration occurred in April aboard Yam-9, a spacecraft built by Loft Orbital, using software from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory powered by Google DeepMind's Gemma 3. The system successfully classified sensor data and identified infrastructure in response to natural language queries, without requiring human analysts on the ground. This approach could dramatically reduce the volume of raw data transmitted to Earth by performing initial analysis in orbit. Loft Orbital's head of AI Paul Lasserre said the technology enables "always-on, patrol layers in space" that can monitor specific areas and flag suspicious activity. The company aims to deploy 50-100 similar satellites for real-time global coverage, building on its current constellation of 12 spacecraft.
Loft signs strategic contract with CNES to provide access to next generation Earth observation capabilities. Loft, in partnership with Magellium Artal Group, today announced the signing of a multi-year contract worth up to tens of millions of euros by the French Space Agency (CNES) for the deployment of a next-generation Earth observation constellation. As part of the France 2030 program, the constellation will provide rapid revisit and faster access to actionable intelligence, with the first satellite scheduled to launch in Q4 2026. "This program represents a leap forward for operationalizing the benefits of AI in space, driving a new generation of space systems that will ultimately be capable of continuously delivering actionable intelligence in minutes," said Pierre-Damien Vaujour, CEO of Loft. "Loft is emerging as a world leader in AI-enabled space infrastructure, guaranteeing French sovereign access to novel capabilities in line with the objectives of France 2030." Serving diverse civil and defense use cases. The launch of this program is part of a rapid transformation of institutional needs for reliable, ready-to-use information. Rapid global change is driving public entities to invest in proactive, Earth observation capabilities that support civil security, maritime activities, disaster response, and environmental monitoring. AI-enabled satellites designed for on-orbit data fusion and persistent monitoring. At the core of the program is a constellation of 10 satellites built around a multi-sensor architecture. Each satellite integrates a range of complementary sensors, including optical, thermal infrared, hyperspectral, and radiofrequency, enabling simultaneous observation across multiple data layers. This approach provides a more complete understanding of a given area and enhances the ability to detect and analyze complex situations. The system also incorporates advanced onboard computing capabilities. Leveraging powerful processors and software applications, including AI-based models, satellites can filter data, identify relevant signals or changes, and accelerate how quickly information can be exploited. By processing data directly in orbit, the system enables faster delivery of actionable insights. A sovereign user ground segment for data processing. The program will include a sovereign user ground segment, developed and operated by Magellium Artal Group. With internationally recognized expertise in Earth observation, Magellium Artal Group will ensure secure processing and data quality monitoring. By deploying the ground segment on a dedicated infrastructure, Magellium Artal Group will help guarantee control of the data chain to institutional users, in compliance with security and sovereignty requirements. Signed with CNES, acting on behalf of the Ministries of Defence, Security and the Environment, this contract reflects renewed confidence in Loft. It confirms the company's ability to meet demanding Earth observation needs and sovereign security requirements for diverse government needs. It also represents a fundamental evolution of the European space ecosystem towards more integrated, agile systems designed for operational uses.