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Northwood Space is a modern space infrastructure company building a global network of phased array ground stations that enable real-time, reliable communication for satellite missions in national security, global connectivity, and disaster response. The company designs, builds, and rapidly deploys vertically integrated systems that power next-generation space missions.
You will join the Platform team as a Build and Release Engineer (DevOps), owning the build system, CI pipelines, test harness integrations, and developer environments used by FPGA, embedded, DSP, cloud, and ground teams. This role is central to developer experience across all engineering disciplines at Northwood.
Key responsibilities include:
- Owning the build system with focus on reproducibility, caching, build times, and cross-platform targets spanning cloud services, embedded firmware, and FPGA gateware
- Designing and maintaining reusable GitLab CI templates and pipeline components, with fast early checks and data-driven optimization of flakiness and cycle time
- Building reproducible developer environments for rapid onboarding
- Implementing release automation and promotion mechanics from development through staging to production, including artifact signing and supply chain checks
- Instrumenting the build and CI system to publish developer productivity metrics and using them to prioritize the tooling roadmap
- Supporting engineers on build and pipeline issues and converting recurring problems into permanent fixes
You will work with engineers shipping software to both cloud and ground stations in the field, making your work have real-world impact on space missions.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or related field, or equivalent practical experience
- 3+ years of experience in build engineering, DevOps, CI/CD, developer productivity, or platform engineering
- Hands-on experience owning CI pipelines (GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, Buildkite, or similar) for multi-team codebases
- Proficiency in Python and shell scripting; ability to read and build Rust or C/C++ projects
- Solid understanding of containers, Linux, and Git workflows
- Demonstrated ability to diagnose and fix slow or unreliable builds with specific examples
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:
- Production experience with Nix, OCI, and hermetic build systems
- Experience with cross-compilation and embedded or FPGA toolchains
- Experience with remote build caching and distributed builds
- Familiarity with software supply chain security tooling, SAST, DAST, and SBOMs
- Exposure to Kubernetes, ArgoCD, or GitOps deployment patterns
- Experience in regulated environments (CMMC, NIST 800-171, or similar) where build provenance matters
Note: Due to U.S. Government space technology export regulations (ITAR), candidates must be U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, protected individuals, or eligible to obtain required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.
