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Principal Enterprise Software Engineer

Los Angeles, CA

K2 Space is building large, high-powered spacecraft for the next generation of space development. Backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Altimeter Capital, and many others ($200M raised to date), we intend to mass produce the highest-powered satellite platforms ever built for missions across LEO to Deep Space. 

The rise of launch vehicles like Falcon 9 and Starship enables the move from an era of mass constraint to one of mass abundance. We believe this new era requires spacecraft with a fundamentally different design in order to fully utilize the massive rockets coming to market.  

We’re a team that believes the future lies in building large, high-powered satellites that can handle multiple orbits. This is a necessity if we ever want to develop the solar system, and become a Kardashev Type II (K2) civilization.  

If you are a motivated individual who thrives in a fast-paced environment and you're excited about contributing to the success of a groundbreaking Series B space startup, we’d love for you to apply. 

The Role 

Our enterprise software team builds the digital backbone that powers K2 Space’s satellite design, manufacturing, and mission operations. We develop tools that connect engineering, production, and mission control into a seamless ecosystem — enabling our hardware to get from concept to orbit faster than ever before. 

We’re looking for engineers who are curious, collaborative, and driven to deliver mission-critical software that helps turn ambitious space projects into reality. 

Responsibilities 

  • Develop highly reliable software solutions used across K2 Space — from factory floors to mission control. 
  • Create and evolve applications that improve how we design, build, and operate our spacecraft. 
  • Partner closely with engineers, business partners, and leaders across disciplines to understand their challenges and design efficient solutions. 
  • Develop prototypes test concept and progress to full fledge software products. 
  • Own full-lifecycle product development from inception to happy customers. 
  • Lead architecture reviews, design discussions, and code reviews with your unique perspective. 
  • Lead software architecture design, deployment strategy, coding standards, and quality processes. 
  • Evaluate and make decisions regarding engineering options while balancing tradeoffs.  
  • Advocate, defend and convert other engineering leaders to your own solutions. 
  • Use data to drive prioritization of work and design of solutions to create the largest positive impact. 
  • Actively contribute to building a culture of transparency, empathy, integrity, and engineering excellence.  
  • Actively mentoring other staff members and help team members build good culture and engineering practices.  

Qualifications 

  • Bachelor's degree in computer science, information technology, mathematics or a STEM discipline or 15+ years of professional experience in software engineering.  
  • 10+ years of experience in full stack development, platform engineering, or API development. 
  • 5+ years of experience with AWS (or Azure, GCP) 
  • 5+ years of in-depth working experience with CI/CD such as GH Actions, Jenkins, Gitlab CI/CD.  
  • Working experience with Docker. 
  • In-depth working experience with Kubernetes (prefer AWS EKS). 
  • Expert working experience with one or more of the following static typed programming languages such as C#, Go, Java, C++, TypeScript. 
  • 5+ years of experience with structured database such as PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Snowflake or similar technologies 
  • Working experience with unstructured database such as NoSQL, Amazon DynamoDB, MongoDB or similar. 
  • Strong working experience with REST API or gRPC. 
  • Strong working experience with binary management platforms such as JFrog Artifactory, AWS CodeArtifact or similar technologies. 
  • Experience with infrastructure orchestration and management tools (Terraform, Ansible, Puppet). 

Nice to Have 

  • Experience with Next.js, React, Angular, or similar frameworks. 
  • Working experience with testing tool such as Cucumber and Cypress. 
  • Experience designing scalable, high-performance software systems. 
  • Knowledge of build systems and package management tools (e.g., Make, Gradle, npm, pip). 
  • Familiarity with data streaming technologies like Apache Kafka, RabbitMQ, or similar. 

Compensation and Benefits: 

  • Base salary range for this role is $190,000 - $230,000 + equity in the company 
  • Salary will be based on several factors including, but not limited to: knowledge and skills, education, and experience level 
  • Comprehensive benefits package including unlimited paid time off, medical/dental/vision/ coverage, life insurance, paid parental leave, and many other perks 

If you don’t meet 100% of the preferred skills and experience, we encourage you to still apply! Building a spacecraft unlike any other requires a team unlike any other and non-traditional career twists and turns are encouraged!

If you need a reasonable accommodation as part of your application for employment or interviews with us, please let us know.

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