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Varda Space Industries is building commercial space infrastructure, including in-orbit pharmaceutical processing systems, reentry capsules, and satellite buses. The company operates at the intersection of space manufacturing and orbital economy innovation, with leadership from SpaceX, Blue Origin, and major pharmaceutical companies.
As Senior Spacecraft Mission Software Engineer, you will own the critical ground segment software platform that enables spacecraft operations. This is a hands-on role spanning telemetry and commanding, data acquisition and distribution, mission control interfaces, simulation, and test automation—deployed reliably across lab, test range, and mission operations environments.
Key responsibilities include:
**Ground Segment Services**: Develop and maintain high-reliability services for telemetry ingestion, scaling, distribution, and commanding. Ensure deterministic behavior for real-time operations and post-flight analysis.
**Mission Control Interfaces**: Deliver operator-grade UIs and dashboards that optimize "ops time" and reduce cognitive load across integration, test, and on-orbit operations phases.
**Simulation and Test Automation**: Build tools to run flight-software simulations, device emulators, and scenario-based automated tests, enabling fast, safe iteration for avionics, guidance/navigation/control, and operations teams.
**Mission Platform**: Design, implement, and productionize software infrastructure for mission and ground software teams. Standardize CI/CD pipelines, artifact management, service templates, infrastructure-as-code, simulation and hardware-in-the-loop frameworks, test harnesses, and observability as self-service tooling.
**Deployments Across Environments**: Create robust deployment patterns for lab benches, test stands, and mission networks. Implement safe rollout/rollback strategies and air-gapped or limited-connectivity deployment approaches.
You will work hands-on with flight software, avionics, RF/ground systems, and mission ops teams. The role requires 5+ years developing spacecraft or safety-critical software, expertise in Python, and a strong technical foundation (BS in computer science, math, physics, engineering, or equivalent).
