Full-Time
Starcloud
11-50 employees
Scalable megawatt data centers in space
Compensation Overview
$120k - $190k/yr
Junior, Mid
No H1B Sponsorship
Redmond, WA, USA
US Citizenship Required
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Math, or a related field, or 2+ years of professional experience in software development.
- Proficiency in programming languages such as C, C++, Python, or similar.
- Experience with the full software development lifecycle, including design, coding, testing, and deployment.
- Develop highly reliable and available software systems for our low-latency, high-capacity data centers in orbit.
- Design and implement fault-tolerant systems that operate at scale with minimal maintenance.
- Write high-quality, efficient code for embedded systems and custom hardware, ensuring optimal performance and reliability.
- Seamlessly integrate software with hardware components, optimizing for high performance and reliability.
- Collaborate with hardware, firmware, and other engineers to refine system performance and troubleshoot issues.
- Create and execute comprehensive test plans to validate software functionality in various environments, including simulations and on-orbit testing.
- Utilize automated testing and continuous integration tools to maintain code quality and ensure robust software deployment.
- Build and maintain robust infrastructure to support rapid development, testing, and deployment of software.
- Develop tools for monitoring and analyzing system performance, ensuring continuous improvement and reliability.
- Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
- 3+ years of professional experience in software development, particularly in aerospace, space, or data processing industries.
- Expertise in networking protocols (UDP, TCP/IP) and high-performance systems.
- Strong skills in debugging, performance optimization, and unit testing.
- Excellent communication skills and the ability to work effectively in a dynamic, cross-functional environment.
Starcloud is developing a network of large-scale data centers located in space, with the capability to expand to gigawatt capacity. The company leverages decreasing launch costs to establish these data centers, which can utilize the abundant energy available in space. This approach allows for rapid scaling of data processing and storage capabilities. Unlike traditional data centers on Earth, Starcloud's space-based facilities can offer unique advantages in energy efficiency and scalability. The goal of Starcloud is to create a sustainable and expansive infrastructure for data management that meets the growing demands of technology and data consumption.
Company Size
11-50
Company Stage
Seed
Total Funding
$13.9M
Headquarters
Redmond, Washington
Founded
2024
Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Strong market demand with over 200 firms interested in their $11M seed round.
- Partnership with SpaceX ensures reliable satellite deployment on Falcon 9 rockets.
- Space-based data centers offer sustainable growth by leveraging solar power.
What critics are saying
- Space debris poses collision risks to Starcloud's satellites.
- Dependency on SpaceX's launch schedule could delay satellite deployments.
- High costs of space infrastructure may strain financial resources.
What makes Starcloud unique
- Starcloud uses space-based solar power to address terrestrial energy constraints.
- Their data centers in orbit reduce the need for Earth-based facilities.
- Starcloud's use of NVIDIA GPUs enhances space-based data processing capabilities.
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Benefits
Health Insurance
Dental Insurance
Vision Insurance
Life Insurance
Disability Insurance
401(k) Retirement Plan
401(k) Company Match
Paid Vacation
Paid Sick Leave
Paid Parental Leave
Stock Options
Growth & Insights and Company News
6 month growth
↓ -7%1 year growth
↓ -14%2 year growth
↑ 20%GeekWire’s startup coverage documents the Pacific Northwest entrepreneurial scene. Sign up for our weekly startup newsletter , and check out the GeekWire funding tracker and venture capital directory .An artist’s conception shows data-center spacecraft being added to an orbital array. (Starcloud via YouTube)Redmond, Wash.-based Starcloud got its start just last year under a different name — Lumen Orbit — but the newly renamed company is already filling out its seed funding round with $10 million in fresh investment for space-based data centers.The new influx of capital comes after December’s announcement that the startup brought in $11 million from investors including NFX, Y Combinator (or YC, for short), FUSE, Soma Capital and scout funds from Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia. Starcloud graduated from Y Combinator’s summer cohort last year.The additional funding comes from previous seed investors and several new venture capital firms in the form of a simplified agreement for future equity, or SAFE. If you add up the $11 million and the $10 million, “it can be thought of as a $21M seed, which is one of the highest-ever seed rounds for a company coming out of YC,” Philip Johnston, Starcloud’s CEO and one of its founders, told GeekWire in an email.Johnston said Starcloud doesn’t intend to identify the new investors until a Series A funding round takes place.Starcloud’s big idea is to place a network of megawatt-scale computer servers in Earth orbit, powered by grids of solar panels that could stretch as much as 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) in width.Such space-based facilities would offer alternatives to terrestrial data centers that are taking up increasing amounts of territory, gobbling up increasing amounts of electrical power, and stirring up increasing levels of controversy.Space-based data centers could play a key role in processing the massive amounts of imagery and other data provided by Earth observation satellites. Doing the computational heavy lifting in space would reduce the bandwidth requirements for Earth-to-ground data transmission.Starcloud emerged from stealth a little less than a year ago when it announced a $2.4 million pre-seed investment round
Lumen Orbit's $11M seed round, led by NFX, was oversubscribed, highlighting the growing interest in space-based computing. Over 200 firms competed for allocation, and the round closed quickly at a $40 million valuation. The company's vision of orbital data centers addresses the physical and energy constraints of terrestrial data centers, leveraging space-based solar power to meet the increasing compute demands of AI and machine learning.
Lumen Orbit has a lofty mission of building data centers in space but investors aren't shying away from the moonshot.
This data-centers-in-space startup had an incredibly competitive deal as VCs scramble to fund power source companies for the AI race.
Lumen Orbit has closed an oversubscribed, eight-figure seed round of more than $10 million, a source familiar with the details told TechCrunch.