Salary Range: 175000 to 210000 (Currency: USD) (Pay period: per-year-salary)

Wanna join the adventure?

Loft Orbital is looking for a Flight Dynamics Software Engineer to join the Ground Platform organization.

You'll work on a small and driven team, developing our flight dynamics software stack so that it can:

Scale to fly 50+ satellites in orbit in a highly automated, reliable, and safe (from a collision avoidance perspective) manner
Enable new conops and customer missions with demanding orbit determination, stationkeeping, and attitude performance requirements

We're looking for someone with a solid theoretical understanding of astrodynamics, operational flight-dynamics experience, and software-engineering foundations. If you enjoy solving hard problems and working in a fast-paced and supportive environment, we'd love to hear from you.

We’re hiring for one position across multiple locations - you only need to apply once.

About this role:

Implement and improve upon algorithms for orbit determination, orbit propagation, maneuver planning (stationkeeping/orbit transfer), conjunction assessment, collision avoidance, and attitude modeling, contributing to our open-source astrodynamics tooling that powers both flight operations and simulation work across the company
Develop and maintain the in-house flight dynamics ground software backend applications that compute, store, and serve our fleet’s ephemerides, maneuvers, conjunctions, target orbits, etc
Interface with systems and mission engineers to help translate technical mission requirements and customer demands into operational outcomes in orbit
Support satellite operations engineers by providing astrodynamics expertise during LEOP/anomalies/conjunction response and assisting with configuring our software stack for various customer missions

Must Haves:

Bachelor's degree in physics or an engineering discipline
Deep technical understanding of some of the following topics: orbital mechanics, state estimation, spacecraft maneuver planning, conjunction assessment, and spacecraft attitude modeling
Fundamentals of numerical methods: solvers, optimization, and simulation techniques
Experience with designing and developing software libraries and backend services, in Python
Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal

Nice to Haves:

Master’s degree in physics or an engineering discipline

Proficiency in astrodynamics tools such as STK, Astrogator, GMAT, OreKit, Monte, Copernicus, OpenSpaceToolkit, or equivalent

Demonstrated practical experience in spacecraft constellation flight dynamics operations

Demonstrated practical experience building high-performance backend software applications and/or libraries

Capable of solving complex problems within a highly collaborative environment

Some of Our Awesome Benefits:

100% company-paid medical, dental, and vision for you and your dependents
100% company-paid life, AD&D, and disability insurance
Fully paid parental leave: 16 weeks for birthing parents, 10 weeks for non-birthing parents
Flexible time off and 12 paid holidays
HSA with employer contribution, FSAs, and commuter benefits
Carrot Fertility, One Medical, and a free Employee Assistance Program
401(k) and equity
Daily catered lunches and snacks in office
Annual company off-site and regular social events
International exposure to our team in France
Relocation assistance when applicable

*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 aren’t afraid to challenge assumptions. We strongly encourage you to apply, even if you don’t 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, Loft’s 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.

Loft Orbital

Flight Dynamics Software Engineer

About the Job

Requirements

Responsibilities

Desired Qualifications

About this role:

Must Haves:

Nice to Haves:

Some of Our Awesome Benefits:

About the Company

Loft Orbital

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