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Spacecraft Mission Software Engineer II

Varda Space Industries - El Segundo, CA, United States - In-office - posted 2026-09-03

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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 technology and orbital economy, with leadership from SpaceX, Blue Origin, and major pharmaceutical companies. As a Spacecraft Mission Software Engineer II, you will own critical ground segment software that enables spacecraft operations. This role bridges telemetry and commanding, data acquisition and distribution, mission control interfaces, simulation, and test automation 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 operations time and reduce cognitive load across integration, test, and on-orbit phases. **Simulation and Test Automation**: Build tools to run flight-software simulations, device emulators, and scenario-based automated tests, enabling fast iteration for avionics, guidance/navigation/control, and operations teams. **Mission Platform Development**: 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 operations teams. The role requires strong software engineering fundamentals and the ability to operate in a safety-critical, high-reliability environment.

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