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Salary: USD 130,000 - 170,000 / annual
Fortastra designs and delivers resilient, high-performance spacecraft for national security space applications. The company recently raised $8M in seed capital and is led by former Hermeus co-founder Mike Smayda.
You will join the Engineering Division as a Senior Ground Software Engineer, owning the ground control software, data infrastructure, and data visualization tools that command spacecraft, capture telemetry, and enable reliable operations from ground test through flight.
Key responsibilities include:
- Design and develop ground control software for commanding and monitoring spacecraft during flight operations and ground tests
- Own data infrastructure that ingests, stores, and serves high-rate telemetry and test data reliably and at scale
- Build data visualization and analysis tools providing real-time and post-test insight into system behavior
- Develop telemetry pipelines handling both live streaming and large historical datasets with disciplined attention to reliability and data integrity
- Work with flight software and avionics engineers to define command and telemetry interfaces that minimize risk and simplify integration
- Build tooling that accelerates data review, anomaly detection, and post-test reconstruction
- Support real-time operations during tests and flights, including console roles as needed
- Generate and maintain clear documentation for ground software systems with disciplined revision control
- Collaborate with test and integration teams to ensure ground systems are buildable, testable, and serviceable
- Identify and resolve issues related to data flow, system observability, and interactions between ground software and spacecraft/test infrastructure
You will work across the full ground stack from low-level data ingestion to user-facing analysis tools, collaborating closely with flight software teams and vehicle operators. The role emphasizes high autonomy, end-to-end ownership, and direct impact on mission-critical systems.
Requirements:
- B.S. in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace, Robotics, or other sciences/physics-based degree
- Prior experience in ground software, mission operations, or telemetry/command systems
- Experience designing and building data infrastructure, databases, time-series stores, streaming pipelines, or message buses
- Experience building data visualization and analysis tools for technical or engineering users
- Proficiency in one or more modern languages such as Python, C++, Go, or Rust
- Solid understanding of networking, protocols, and real-time or high-throughput data handling
- Ability to work independently and in small, fast-moving teams
- U.S. Citizenship and ability to obtain or have an active TS/SCI clearance
Preferred qualifications:
- Experience with space systems, rovers, satellites, launch vehicles, or similar domains
- Experience with cloud-based ground systems or mission control software
- Exposure to DevOps and automated testing pipelines
- Comfort using modern agentic AI tools (e.g., Claude) in development workflow
Note: Work is on-site only; remote or hybrid arrangements will not be considered.
