K2 Space
MAKING PREVIOUSLY IMPOSSIBLE MISSIONS POSSIBLE
K2 Space maximizes the amount of power, mass and volume that can be deployed with today's launch vehicle.
We're looking for curious and passionate team members capable of relentless first principles thinking who share our vision for a more ambitious future in space. Join our team for the opportunity to work in a dynamic and innovative space startup environment!
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K2 is building the largest and highest-power satellites ever flown, unlocking performance levels previously out of reach across every orbit. Backed by $450M from leading investors including Altimeter Capital, Redpoint Ventures, T. Rowe Price, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Alpine Space Ventures, and others – with an additional $500M in signed contracts across commercial and US government customers – we’re mass-producing the highest-power satellite platforms ever built for missions from LEO to deep space.
The rise of heavy-lift launch vehicles is shifting the industry from an era of mass constraint to one of mass abundance, and we believe this new era demands a fundamentally different class of spacecraft. Engineered to survive the harshest radiation environments and to fully capitalize on today’s and tomorrow’s massive rockets, K2 satellites deliver unmatched capability at constellation scale and across multiple orbits.
With multiple launches planned through 2026 and 2027, we're Building Bigger 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 C space startup, we’d love for you to apply.
The Role
The software team at K2 builds software across the stack, from gateware & micro firmware to high level satellite control to Ground Software and all the associated testing, and we’re looking for an SDET who shares our belief that test infrastructure is a first-class engineering discipline. You will be embedded directly within the flight software team, working shoulder-to-shoulder with the engineers writing the code that flies our spacecraft owning the automation frameworks, test tooling, and HIL infrastructure that make rapid, confident software deployment possible.
This role is not a QA function. You will be a builder. In your first 6 months, you will design and ship core test automation frameworks and integrate them into our CI/CD pipelines. In your first year, you will own end-to-end test coverage across multiple spacecraft subsystems and lead HIL testing campaigns alongside flight software engineers, proving the software is ready to go to space. In your first two years, you will have operated your test systems against hardware that has been launched to orbit.
Responsibilities
- Design, develop, and own software test frameworks targeting K2’s flight software stack, including subsystems for propulsion, GNC, power, thermal, and communications
- Build and maintain automation tooling that integrates seamlessly into CI/CD pipelines, enabling fast and reliable flight software deployment
- Develop hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and software-in-the-loop (SIL) test infrastructure in close collaboration with flight software engineers
- Create tooling for test execution, data collection, and anomaly triage that gives engineers clear, actionable signal
- Reduce flaky and nondeterministic tests; continuously improve coverage, pipeline reliability, and test execution speed
- Collaborate with flight software, avionics, and systems engineers to define test requirements, write test plans, and execute verification campaigns
- Analyze test results to identify and characterize failures, and drive resolution across the team
- Maintain documentation for test infrastructure, procedures, and hardware configurations
Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related STEM field, or equivalent professional experience
- Experience building and maintaining test automation frameworks, not just executing tests written by others
- Experience with CI/CD systems (e.g., GitLab Pipelines, GitHub Actions, Jenkins) and version control (Git)
Nice to Have
- Experience with hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testbeds or embedded systems testing
- Experience testing avionics, spacecraft, robotics, autonomous vehicles, or other safety-critical hardware
- Rust programming experience, including embedded or no_std environments
- Knowledge of real-time operating systems (RTOS) or bare-metal embedded firmware
- Familiarity with aerospace communication protocols (RS-422/485, Ethernet, UART, SpaceWire, Ethernet)
- Experience with electronics test equipment: oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, power supplies
- Containerization experience (Docker, Kubernetes) for test environment management
- Experience with Embedded Linux
- Familiarity with shell scripting
Compensation and Benefits:
- Base salary range for this role is $123,000 - $175,000 + 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 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.
Export Compliance
As defined in the ITAR, “U.S. Persons” include U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents (i.e., Green Card holders), and certain protected individuals (e.g., refugees/asylees, American Samoans). Please consult with a knowledgeable advisor if you are unsure whether you are a “U.S. Person.”
The person hired for this role will have access to information and items controlled by U.S. export control regulations, including the export control regulations outlined in the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR). The person hired for this role must therefore either be a “U.S. person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15 or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export control license.
Equal Opportunity
K2 Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with K2 Space is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.
Ready to apply?
Apply to K2 Space
K2 is building the largest and highest-power satellites ever flown, unlocking performance levels previously out of reach across every orbit. Backed by $450M from leading investors including Altimeter Capital, Redpoint Ventures, T. Rowe Price, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Alpine Space Ventures, and others – with an additional $500M in signed contracts across commercial and US government customers – we’re mass-producing the highest-power satellite platforms ever built for missions from LEO to deep space.
The rise of heavy-lift launch vehicles is shifting the industry from an era of mass constraint to one of mass abundance, and we believe this new era demands a fundamentally different class of spacecraft. Engineered to survive the harshest radiation environments and to fully capitalize on today’s and tomorrow’s massive rockets, K2 satellites deliver unmatched capability at constellation scale and across multiple orbits.
With multiple launches planned through 2026 and 2027, we're Building Bigger 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 C 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.
As we continue to grow, we’re looking for a Senior Platform Engineer on our Enterprise Information Systems team, you must possess strong technical skills and a sense of empathy for your fellow developers. You will work closely with other talented engineers, architects and senior stakeholders to design, implement, and deliver on our roadmap.
Our Ideal Candidate
- Distills Kubernetes & cloud networking (identity, routing, segmentation, exposure) into clear, lightweight abstractions that cut cognitive load for product teams
- Claims ownership of hard connectivity challenges end‑to‑end, including design, rollout, adoption, and lifecycle producing solutions with company‑wide impact
- Practices surgical precision in feature development, delivering high value while avoiding complexity that delays or bloats
- Delivers work permeated with excellence including readable code, automated tests, clear documentation, consistent maintenance, and polished observability
- Intuitively understands packet flow, service identity, and secure communication with a keen ability to simplify them
- Understands the importance of resilience and reliability in production operations and upgrades
Responsibilities And Accountabilities
- Design and evolve self‑service connectivity abstractions enabling scoped segmentation, governed exposure, adaptive ingress/egress, and traceable traffic
- Own service identity & trust (mTLS, cert automation, least‑privilege east‑west, governed egress) with broad coverage and low friction
- Engineer resilient traffic paths (timeouts, retries, circuit breaking, failure isolation) and harden them via chaos tests, automated remediation, and MTTR reduction
- Establish observability standards so end‑to‑end request path and applied policies are visible (source, identity, route, outcome, saturation, cost) across environments
- Provide approachable docs & diagnostics (guides, diagrams, ‘why can’t this connect?’ flows) to shorten support loops
- Optimize performance & cost (latency budgets, cross‑AZ transfer, IP consumption, LB efficiency) and act on anomalies
- Apply threat & abuse modelling to connectivity surfaces (API exposure, egress, identity propagation) using industry principles while keeping solutions developer‑friendly
- Steward lifecycle and adoption including versioning, safe migrations, deprecations, usage telemetry, and proactive pruning of unused resources
- Mentor engineers and partner with adjacent DevX teams to embed networking abstractions into golden paths, raising organizational fluency and consistency
- Own, operate, and maintain network related infrastructure within and adjacent to EKS
Qualifications And Experience
- BS/MS in Computer Science (or equivalent) and 8+ years of experience building and operating distributed/platform systems with production Kubernetes/EKS ownership
- Proficiency in at least one language (Go, TypeScript, Python, Java) and disciplined SCM workflows (branching, reviews, automated gates)
- Solid grounding in cloud + Kubernetes networking, for example VPC & subnet layout, routing, east-west segmentation, service exposure, DNS/CoreDNS, policy enforcement, and CNI behaviour
- Practical service trust & identity knowledge such as mTLS, certificate automation/rotation, PKI/CA or SPIFFE/SPIRE concepts
- Working understanding of traffic resilience & performance: timeouts, retries, backoff, circuit breaking, rate limiting, failure isolation, latency and saturation analysis
- Experience with developer connectivity abstractions: K8s CRDs/operators, guardrails (admission, lint, simulation) and automated tests
- Competence in observability & SLOs (metrics, tracing, structured logs, L4/L7 telemetry, end‑to‑end request path, visibility into applied policies, SLI/SLO definition & enforcement)
- Experience with infrastructure as code and delivery: Terraform or CDK, GitOps (Argo/Flux), progressive/canary rollouts, policy-as-code integration
- Operational experience: chaos/fault injection, component upgrades (CNI, proxies, cert issuers), incident response
- Ability to communicate and mentor on networking & identity across varied fluency levels
- Working knowledge of eBPF / Cilium Hubble or Envoy extensions is an asset
- Exposure to Gateway API or service mesh (Istio, Linkerd, ambient), multi region failover, IPv6/dual stack planning is an asset
- Comfort with advanced DNS/discovery (split horizon, conditional forwarding), policy engines (Kyverno/OPA), API inventory & cost attribution metadata is an asset
Compensation and Benefits:
- Base salary range for this role is $165,000 - $215,000 + 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 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.
Export Compliance
As defined in the ITAR, “U.S. Persons” include U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents (i.e., Green Card holders), and certain protected individuals (e.g., refugees/asylees, American Samoans). Please consult with a knowledgeable advisor if you are unsure whether you are a “U.S. Person.”
The person hired for this role will have access to information and items controlled by U.S. export control regulations, including the export control regulations outlined in the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR). The person hired for this role must therefore either be a “U.S. person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15 or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export control license.
Equal Opportunity
K2 Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with K2 Space is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.
Ready to apply?
Apply to K2 Space
K2 is building the largest and highest-power satellites ever flown, unlocking performance levels previously out of reach across every orbit. Backed by $450M from leading investors including Altimeter Capital, Redpoint Ventures, T. Rowe Price, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Alpine Space Ventures, and others – with an additional $500M in signed contracts across commercial and US government customers – we’re mass-producing the highest-power satellite platforms ever built for missions from LEO to deep space.
The rise of heavy-lift launch vehicles is shifting the industry from an era of mass constraint to one of mass abundance, and we believe this new era demands a fundamentally different class of spacecraft. Engineered to survive the harshest radiation environments and to fully capitalize on today’s and tomorrow’s massive rockets, K2 satellites deliver unmatched capability at constellation scale and across multiple orbits.
With multiple launches planned through 2026 and 2027, we're Building Bigger 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 C space startup, we’d love for you to apply.
The Role
As a Senior Software Engineer on our Ground Software team, you are responsible for creating the software that is used to build, test, and fly our satellites and customer payloads. You will build upon the mission software platform used to fly K2's Gravitas satellite, developing new capabilities and automation as we scale to support multiple constellations. You will collaborate closely with internal Mission Operations and Flight Software teams to define and implement our overall mission architecture, and you will work with external customers to scope and deliver software that meets their payload needs.
You will have the opportunity to work in exciting, interdisciplinary domains like: satellite command and control, constellation operations, mission automation, radio communications, astrodynamics, and more.
**This role requires in person presence at our headquarters in Torrance, CA.**
Responsibilities
- Design and implement software that facilitates the build, test, and operations of K2's vehicles and our customers' payloads
- Collaborate with Mission Operators and Engineers across the company to identify and scope software solutions to complex technical and business problems
- Facilitate software design reviews, architecture discussions, and code reviews to align stakeholders on technical direction
- Work across our stack (Rust backend, TypeScript/Vue frontend) to support development, test, and operations milestones
- Support internal and external customers in an on-call capacity as your software is used to drive ground test activities and on-orbit spacecraft operations
- Mentor other engineers to build a strong team culture and software engineering practices
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, math, or a STEM discipline or 3+ years of professional experience in software engineering
- Additionally, 5+ years of experience building software solutions in a professional environment
Nice-to-Have
- Experience working on space missions and/or the satellite ground segment
- Experience with Rust or another statically-typed backend programming language (Go, C++, Java, C#, TypeScript)
- Experience with JavaScript/TypeScript and modern frontend development tooling (Vue, React, Svelte)
- Experience with version control, continuous integration, build, deployment, monitoring
- Experience developing HTTP or gRPC APIs
- Experience with SQL databases (PostgreSQL or similar)
- Experience designing and implementing event-driven architectures
- Experience developing reliable, scalable systems
- Experience with Docker and/or Kubernetes
- Experience with WebSockets and/or Server-Sent-Events (SSE)
- Familiarity with cybersecurity best practices and relevant certifications/standards (SOC2, FedRAMP)
- Familiarity with networking protocols (TCP/IP, UDP, QUIC)
- Familiarity with data streaming technologies such as NATS, Pulsar, or similar
Compensation and Benefits:
- Base salary range for this role is $150,000 - $200,000 + 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 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.
Export Compliance
As defined in the ITAR, “U.S. Persons” include U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents (i.e., Green Card holders), and certain protected individuals (e.g., refugees/asylees, American Samoans). Please consult with a knowledgeable advisor if you are unsure whether you are a “U.S. Person.”
The person hired for this role will have access to information and items controlled by U.S. export control regulations, including the export control regulations outlined in the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR). The person hired for this role must therefore either be a “U.S. person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15 or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export control license.
Equal Opportunity
K2 Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with K2 Space is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.
Ready to apply?
Apply to K2 Space
K2 is building the largest and highest-power satellites ever flown, unlocking performance levels previously out of reach across every orbit. Backed by $450M from leading investors including Altimeter Capital, Redpoint Ventures, T. Rowe Price, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Alpine Space Ventures, and others – with an additional $500M in signed contracts across commercial and US government customers – we’re mass-producing the highest-power satellite platforms ever built for missions from LEO to deep space.
The rise of heavy-lift launch vehicles is shifting the industry from an era of mass constraint to one of mass abundance, and we believe this new era demands a fundamentally different class of spacecraft. Engineered to survive the harshest radiation environments and to fully capitalize on today’s and tomorrow’s massive rockets, K2 satellites deliver unmatched capability at constellation scale and across multiple orbits.
With multiple launches planned through 2026 and 2027, we're Building Bigger 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 C space startup, we’d love for you to apply.
The Role
As a Senior Application Software Engineer on our Enterprise Team, you will design and build mission-critical software that connects engineering, manufacturing, and operations. Your work will directly enable accelerated satellite design, rapid production, and reliable mission execution. You’ll collaborate closely with teams throughout K2 Space and deliver systems that improve efficiency, scale operations, and support ambitious missions.
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.
- Build prototypes to test concepts, validate technical constraints and progress to production features.
- Own full-lifecycle feature development from inception to happy customers.
- Actively contribute to software architecture design, deployment strategy, coding standards and quality processes.
- Understand tradeoffs in competing engineering options and be able to articulate these tradeoffs to senior leadership to help drive decisions.
- Work with customers to drive adoption and make progress on product usability.
- 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 8+ years of professional experience in software engineering.
- 5+ years of experience in full stack development, platform engineering or API development.
- 3+ years of experience with AWS.
- 3+ 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.
- 3+ 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 $160,000 - $200,000 + 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 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.
Export Compliance
As defined in the ITAR, “U.S. Persons” include U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents (i.e., Green Card holders), and certain protected individuals (e.g., refugees/asylees, American Samoans). Please consult with a knowledgeable advisor if you are unsure whether you are a “U.S. Person.”
The person hired for this role will have access to information and items controlled by U.S. export control regulations, including the export control regulations outlined in the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR). The person hired for this role must therefore either be a “U.S. person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15 or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export control license.
Equal Opportunity
K2 Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with K2 Space is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.
Ready to apply?
Apply to K2 Space
K2 is building the largest and highest-power satellites ever flown, unlocking performance levels previously out of reach across every orbit. Backed by $450M from leading investors including Altimeter Capital, Redpoint Ventures, T. Rowe Price, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Alpine Space Ventures, and others – with an additional $500M in signed contracts across commercial and US government customers – we’re mass-producing the highest-power satellite platforms ever built for missions from LEO to deep space.
The rise of heavy-lift launch vehicles is shifting the industry from an era of mass constraint to one of mass abundance, and we believe this new era demands a fundamentally different class of spacecraft. Engineered to survive the harshest radiation environments and to fully capitalize on today’s and tomorrow’s massive rockets, K2 satellites deliver unmatched capability at constellation scale and across multiple orbits.
With multiple launches planned through 2026 and 2027, we're Building Bigger 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 C space startup, we’d love for you to apply.
The Role
The software team at K2 strives to blur the lines between the various types of software development and encourages team members to get into parts of the stack they may not otherwise have experience with. This spectrum includes HDL programming (VHDL, SystemVerilog), embedded software on microcontrollers (Rust, C++), operating systems (Rust, C++, C), application software on flight computers (Rust, C++), GNC algorithms (Rust, C++), to test systems (Python), and many things inbetween. By doing this, we create a stronger team with more capable engineers. For now, this does not include front-end, artificial intelligence, or machine learning development.
As a part of the team, you will be responsible for the development and verification of FPGA firmware used to fly some of the largest spacecraft that have ever been flown. You will be able to write mission-critical code that controls propulsion systems, attitude control systems, RF systems, and power systems to ensure safe and reliable operation of the vehicle. In your first 6 months you will work with your team to develop core pieces of the FPGA architecture such as the strategies for fault tolerance, real-time control, high-speed data routing, and telemetry downlink. In your first year you will implement larger and more complex FPGA systems and begin verifying your code using both software and hardware in the loop simulators. In your first two years you will operate your code on multiple spacecraft, demonstrating robust performance in demanding missions.
Responsibilities
- Own the architecture and implementation of critical programmable logic systems across the spacecraft that support vehicle networking, RF systems, and real-time control of all spacecraft subsystems
- Implement these architectures in RTL using VHDL and SystemVerilog
- Verify and validate FPGA designs using a mix of simulation, bench-testing, and Hardware In The Loop testbeds
- Support integration, test, and troubleshooting efforts for FPGA designs across all levels of the spacecraft development and manufacturing
- Develop the tools and infrastructure to support rapid, high-reliability FPGA solutions across all subsystems
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, math, or a STEM discipline or 3+ years of professional experience in software development
- 3+ years working with complex FPGA designs spanning digital, mixed signal, or RF applications
- Development experience with VHDL or SystemVerilog
Nice to Have
- Experience integrating logic onto Xilinx SoC platforms
- Experience with digital signal processing (DSP) fundamentals and implementing complex DSP logic and software defined radios on FPGAs
- Experience implementing high-speed SERDES interfaces such as Ethernet, PCIe, and JESD204C.
- Experience with standard bus and streaming protocols such as AXI and AXI-Stream
- Experience with evaluating and integrating vendor/third party IP
- Experience with common scripting languages such as Python, TCL, and Bash
- Experience with Linux systems programming and driver development
- Experience with continuous integration and continuous delivery systems
- Experience building or working with hard real-time embedded systems (bare-metal or RTOS)
- Basic knowledge of electronics, computer architecture, and control systems
- Experience with software verification and testing methods
- Experience with software and network performance analysis and debugging
Compensation and Benefits:
- Base salary range for this role is $120,000 – $225,000 + 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 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.
Export Compliance
As defined in the ITAR, “U.S. Persons” include U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents (i.e., Green Card holders), and certain protected individuals (e.g., refugees/asylees, American Samoans). Please consult with a knowledgeable advisor if you are unsure whether you are a “U.S. Person.”
The person hired for this role will have access to information and items controlled by U.S. export control regulations, including the export control regulations outlined in the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR). The person hired for this role must therefore either be a “U.S. person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15 or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export control license.
Equal Opportunity
K2 Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with K2 Space is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.
Ready to apply?
Apply to K2 Space
K2 is building the largest and highest-power satellites ever flown, unlocking performance levels previously out of reach across every orbit. Backed by $450M from leading investors including Altimeter Capital, Redpoint Ventures, T. Rowe Price, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Alpine Space Ventures, and others – with an additional $500M in signed contracts across commercial and US government customers – we’re mass-producing the highest-power satellite platforms ever built for missions from LEO to deep space.
The rise of heavy-lift launch vehicles is shifting the industry from an era of mass constraint to one of mass abundance, and we believe this new era demands a fundamentally different class of spacecraft. Engineered to survive the harshest radiation environments and to fully capitalize on today’s and tomorrow’s massive rockets, K2 satellites deliver unmatched capability at constellation scale and across multiple orbits.
With multiple launches planned through 2026 and 2027, we're Building Bigger 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 C space startup, we’d love for you to apply.
The Role
The software team at K2 strives to blur the lines between the various types of software development and encourages team members to get into parts of the stack they may not otherwise have experience with. This spectrum includes GNC algorithms (Rust, C++), application software on flight computers (Rust, C++), to embedded software on microcrontrollers (Rust, C++),to operating systems (Rust, C++, C), to HDL programming (VHDL, SystemVerilog), to test systems (Python), and many things inbetween. By doing this, we create a stronger team with more capable engineers. For now, this does not include front-end, artificial intelligence, or machine learning development.
As a part of the team, you will be responsible for the development and verification of the software used to fly some of the largest spacecraft that have ever been flown. You will be able to write mission-critical code that controls propulsion systems, attitude control systems, and power systems to ensure safe and reliable operation of the vehicle. In your first 6 months you will developcore pieces of the software architecture including the strategies for fault tolerance, real-time control, and telemetry downlink. In your first year you will implement larger software systems and begin verifying your code using both software and hardware in the loop simulators. In your first two years you will operate your code on multiple spacecraft, demonstrating robust performance in demanding missions.
Responsibilities
- Create software architecture for real-time, fault tolerant control of a 20kW+ spacecraft
- Develop software applications for control of spacecraft subsystems, including propulsion, guidance/attitude control, thermal, power, and communications systems
- Design and implement state machines for robust operation of the spacecraft
- Create and utilize robust tools to allow for rapid deployment of quality code
- Perform data analysis and anomaly investigation to identify and resolve software bugs
- Support integration and testing of the spacecraft subsystems
- Build and maintain infrastructure to increase reliability when developing and testing software
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, math, or a STEM discipline or 5+ years of professional experience in software engineering
- Development experience in Rust, C/C++, Python, VHDL, SystemVerilog
Nice to Have
- Experience with spacecraft flight software development
- Fluency with Linux systems programming and driver development
- Experience with continuous integration and continuous delivery systems
- Experience building or working with hard real-time embedded systems (bare-metal or RTOS)
- Basic knowledge of electronics, computer architecture, and control systems
- Experience developing or working with state machines
- Experience with software verification and testing methods
- Experience with software and network performance analysis and debugging
- Experience with implementing Extended Kalman Filters for inertial sensors
- Experience with fault tolerant software design and implementation
- Experience defining and creating test systems for both hardware-in-the-loop and hardware-out-of-the-loop
Compensation and Benefits:
- Base salary range for this role is $160,000 - $200,000 + 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 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.
Export Compliance
As defined in the ITAR, “U.S. Persons” include U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents (i.e., Green Card holders), and certain protected individuals (e.g., refugees/asylees, American Samoans). Please consult with a knowledgeable advisor if you are unsure whether you are a “U.S. Person.”
The person hired for this role will have access to information and items controlled by U.S. export control regulations, including the export control regulations outlined in the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR). The person hired for this role must therefore either be a “U.S. person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15 or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export control license.
Equal Opportunity
K2 Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with K2 Space is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.
Ready to apply?
Apply to K2 Space
K2 is building the largest and highest-power satellites ever flown, unlocking performance levels previously out of reach across every orbit. Backed by $450M from leading investors including Altimeter Capital, Redpoint Ventures, T. Rowe Price, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Alpine Space Ventures, and others – with an additional $500M in signed contracts across commercial and US government customers – we’re mass-producing the highest-power satellite platforms ever built for missions from LEO to deep space.
The rise of heavy-lift launch vehicles is shifting the industry from an era of mass constraint to one of mass abundance, and we believe this new era demands a fundamentally different class of spacecraft. Engineered to survive the harshest radiation environments and to fully capitalize on today’s and tomorrow’s massive rockets, K2 satellites deliver unmatched capability at constellation scale and across multiple orbits.
With multiple launches planned through 2026 and 2027, we're Building Bigger 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 C space startup, we’d love for you to apply.
The Role
The software team at K2 is building our stack primarily in Rust because we believe modern programming languages should be fun, as well as correct. We see Rust as a key enabling technology that allows us to be more effective as software engineers across the entire stack whether that is contributing to the GNC algorithms, application software on flight computers, embedded software on microcontrollers, and many things in-between.
As a part of the team, you will be responsible for the development and verification of the software used to fly some of the largest spacecraft that have ever been flown. You will be able to write mission-critical code that controls propulsion systems, attitude control systems, and power systems to ensure safe and reliable operation of the vehicle. In your first 6 months you will develop core pieces of the software architecture including the strategies for fault tolerance, real-time control, and telemetry downlink. In your first year you will implement larger software systems and begin verifying your code using both software and hardware in the loop simulators. In your first two years you will operate your code on multiple spacecraft, demonstrating robust performance in demanding missions.
Responsibilities
- Create software architecture for real-time, fault tolerant control of a 20kW+ spacecraft
- Develop software applications for control of spacecraft subsystems, including propulsion, guidance/attitude control, thermal, power, and communications systems
- Design and implement state machines for robust operation of the spacecraft
- Author drivers for microcontroller peripherals and external sensors.
- Create and utilize robust tools to allow for rapid deployment of quality code
- Perform data analysis and anomaly investigation to identify and resolve software bugs
- Support integration and testing of the spacecraft subsystems
- Build and maintain infrastructure to increase reliability when developing and testing software
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, math, or a STEM discipline or 3+ years of professional experience in software engineering
- Development experience in Rust
Nice to Have
- Experience with spacecraft flight software development
- Fluency with Linux systems programming and driver development
- Experience with continuous integration and continuous delivery systems
- Experience working with hard real-time embedded systems (bare-metal or RTOS)
- Experience authoring no_std systems in Rust
- Basic knowledge of electronics, computer architecture, and control systems
- Experience developing or working with state machines
- Experience with software verification and testing methods
- Experience with software and network performance analysis and debugging
- Experience working in Rust production environments
- Experience with fault tolerant software design and implementation
- Experience defining and creating test systems for both hardware-in-the-loop and hardware-out-of-the-loop
Compensation and Benefits:
- Base salary range for this role is $123,000 - $160,000 + 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 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.
Export Compliance
As defined in the ITAR, “U.S. Persons” include U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents (i.e., Green Card holders), and certain protected individuals (e.g., refugees/asylees, American Samoans). Please consult with a knowledgeable advisor if you are unsure whether you are a “U.S. Person.”
The person hired for this role will have access to information and items controlled by U.S. export control regulations, including the export control regulations outlined in the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR). The person hired for this role must therefore either be a “U.S. person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15 or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export control license.
Equal Opportunity
K2 Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with K2 Space is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.
Ready to apply?
Apply to K2 Space
K2 is building the largest and highest-power satellites ever flown, unlocking performance levels previously out of reach across every orbit. Backed by $450M from leading investors including Altimeter Capital, Redpoint Ventures, T. Rowe Price, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Alpine Space Ventures, and others – with an additional $500M in signed contracts across commercial and US government customers – we’re mass-producing the highest-power satellite platforms ever built for missions from LEO to deep space.
The rise of heavy-lift launch vehicles is shifting the industry from an era of mass constraint to one of mass abundance, and we believe this new era demands a fundamentally different class of spacecraft. Engineered to survive the harshest radiation environments and to fully capitalize on today’s and tomorrow’s massive rockets, K2 satellites deliver unmatched capability at constellation scale and across multiple orbits.
With multiple launches planned through 2026 and 2027, we're Building Bigger 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 C space startup, we’d love for you to apply.
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.
- Build prototypes to test concepts and validate technical constraints.
- Develop prototypes into working product features.
- Own full-lifecycle feature development from inception to happy customers.
- Actively contribute to software features and bug fixes.
- Understand tradeoffs in competing engineering options and be able to articulate these tradeoffs to senior engineers and contribute to implementation progress.
- Work with customers to drive adoption and make progress on product usability.
- Understand priorities communicated by senior staff and work to develop solution with minimal oversight.
- Ability to balance being strongly opinionated on tech stack while remaining open-mind and willingness to reevaluate with new data point.
- 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 1-3+ years of professional experience in software engineering.
- 1+ years of experience in full stack development, platform engineering or API development.
- 1+ years of experience with AWS.
- 1+ years of in-depth working experience with CI/CD such as GH Actions, Jenkins, Gitlab CI/CD.
- 1+ years of in-depth working experience with Git.
- 1+ years of in-depth working experience with Docker.
- 1+ years of in-depth working experience with Kubernetes (prefer AWS EKS).
- Working experience with one or more of the following static typed programming languages such as C#.NET, Go, Java.
- 1+ years of experience with structured database such as PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Snowflake or similar technologies
- 1+ years of experience with unstructured database such as NoSQL, Amazon DynamoDB, MongoDB or similar.
- Working experience with all aspects of software engineering best practices.
- Working experience with REST API or gRPC.
- 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).
- Working experience with OAuth 2.0 and OIDC.
Nice to Have
- Experience with Next.js, React, Angular, or similar frameworks.
- Working experience with TypeScript.
- Working experience with testing tool such as Cucumber and Cypress.
- Foundational knowledge of scalable, high-performance software systems.
- Knowledge of build systems and package management tools (e.g., Make, Gradle, npm, pip).
Compensation and Benefits:
- Base salary range for this role is $123,000 $160,000 + 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.
Export Compliance
As defined in the ITAR, “U.S. Persons” include U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents (i.e., Green Card holders), and certain protected individuals (e.g., refugees/asylees, American Samoans). Please consult with a knowledgeable advisor if you are unsure whether you are a “U.S. Person.”
The person hired for this role will have access to information and items controlled by U.S. export control regulations, including the export control regulations outlined in the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR). The person hired for this role must therefore either be a “U.S. person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15 or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export control license.
Equal Opportunity
K2 Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with K2 Space is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.
Ready to apply?
Apply to K2 Space
K2 is building the largest and highest-power satellites ever flown, unlocking performance levels previously out of reach across every orbit. Backed by $450M from leading investors including Altimeter Capital, Redpoint Ventures, T. Rowe Price, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Alpine Space Ventures, and others – with an additional $500M in signed contracts across commercial and US government customers – we’re mass-producing the highest-power satellite platforms ever built for missions from LEO to deep space.
The rise of heavy-lift launch vehicles is shifting the industry from an era of mass constraint to one of mass abundance, and we believe this new era demands a fundamentally different class of spacecraft. Engineered to survive the harshest radiation environments and to fully capitalize on today’s and tomorrow’s massive rockets, K2 satellites deliver unmatched capability at constellation scale and across multiple orbits.
With multiple launches planned through 2026 and 2027, we're Building Bigger 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 C space startup, we’d love for you to apply.
The Role
As a Principal Application Software Engineer on our Enterprise Team, you will design and build mission-critical software that connects engineering, manufacturing, and operations. Your work will directly enable accelerated satellite design, rapid production, and reliable mission execution. You’ll collaborate closely with teams throughout K2 Space and deliver systems that improve efficiency, scale operations, and support ambitious missions.
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 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.
Export Compliance
As defined in the ITAR, “U.S. Persons” include U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents (i.e., Green Card holders), and certain protected individuals (e.g., refugees/asylees, American Samoans). Please consult with a knowledgeable advisor if you are unsure whether you are a “U.S. Person.”
The person hired for this role will have access to information and items controlled by U.S. export control regulations, including the export control regulations outlined in the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR). The person hired for this role must therefore either be a “U.S. person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15 or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export control license.
Equal Opportunity
K2 Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with K2 Space is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.
Ready to apply?
Apply to K2 Space
K2 is building the largest and highest-power satellites ever flown, unlocking performance levels previously out of reach across every orbit. Backed by $450M from leading investors including Altimeter Capital, Redpoint Ventures, T. Rowe Price, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Alpine Space Ventures, and others – with an additional $500M in signed contracts across commercial and US government customers – we’re mass-producing the highest-power satellite platforms ever built for missions from LEO to deep space.
The rise of heavy-lift launch vehicles is shifting the industry from an era of mass constraint to one of mass abundance, and we believe this new era demands a fundamentally different class of spacecraft. Engineered to survive the harshest radiation environments and to fully capitalize on today’s and tomorrow’s massive rockets, K2 satellites deliver unmatched capability at constellation scale and across multiple orbits.
With multiple launches planned through 2026 and 2027, we're Building Bigger 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 C space startup, we’d love for you to apply.
The Role
The software team at K2 strives to blur the lines between the various types of software development and encourages team members to get into parts of the stack they may not otherwise have experience with. This spectrum includes GNC algorithms (Rust, C++), application software on flight computers (Rust, C++), to embedded software on microcrontrollers (Rust, C++),to operating systems (Rust, C++, C), to HDL programming (VHDL, SystemVerilog), to test systems (Python), and many things inbetween. By doing this, we create a stronger team with more capable engineers. For now, this does not include front-end, artificial intelligence, or machine learning development.
As a part of the team, you will be responsible for the development and verification of the software used to fly some of the largest spacecraft that have ever been flown. You will be able to write mission-critical code that controls propulsion systems, attitude control systems, and power systems to ensure safe and reliable operation of the vehicle. In your first 6 months you will developcore pieces of the software architecture including the strategies for fault tolerance, real-time control, and telemetry downlink. In your first year you will implement larger software systems and begin verifying your code using both software and hardware in the loop simulators. In your first two years you will operate your code on multiple spacecraft, demonstrating robust performance in demanding missions.
Responsibilities
- Create software architecture for real-time, fault tolerant control of a 20kW+ spacecraft
- Develop software applications for control of spacecraft subsystems, including propulsion, guidance/attitude control, thermal, power, and communications systems
- Design and implement state machines for robust operation of the spacecraft
- Create and utilize robust tools to allow for rapid deployment of quality code
- Perform data analysis and anomaly investigation to identify and resolve software bugs
- Support integration and testing of the spacecraft subsystems
- Build and maintain infrastructure to increase reliability when developing and testing software
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, math, or a STEM discipline or 10+ years of professional experience in software engineering
- Development experience in Rust, C/C++, Python, VHDL, SystemVerilog
Nice to Have
- Experience with spacecraft flight software development
- Fluency with Linux systems programming and driver development
- Experience with continuous integration and continuous delivery systems
- Experience building or working with hard real-time embedded systems (bare-metal or RTOS)
- Basic knowledge of electronics, computer architecture, and control systems
- Experience developing or working with state machines
- Experience with software verification and testing methods
- Experience with software and network performance analysis and debugging
- Experience with implementing Extended Kalman Filters for inertial sensors
- Experience with fault tolerant software design and implementation
- Experience defining and creating test systems for both hardware-in-the-loop and hardware-out-of-the-loop
Compensation and Benefits:
- Base salary range for this role is $200,000 - $240,000 + 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 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.
Export Compliance
As defined in the ITAR, “U.S. Persons” include U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents (i.e., Green Card holders), and certain protected individuals (e.g., refugees/asylees, American Samoans). Please consult with a knowledgeable advisor if you are unsure whether you are a “U.S. Person.”
The person hired for this role will have access to information and items controlled by U.S. export control regulations, including the export control regulations outlined in the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR). The person hired for this role must therefore either be a “U.S. person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15 or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export control license.
Equal Opportunity
K2 Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with K2 Space is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.
Ready to apply?
Apply to K2 Space
K2 is building the largest and highest-power satellites ever flown, unlocking performance levels previously out of reach across every orbit. Backed by $450M from leading investors including Altimeter Capital, Redpoint Ventures, T. Rowe Price, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Alpine Space Ventures, and others – with an additional $500M in signed contracts across commercial and US government customers – we’re mass-producing the highest-power satellite platforms ever built for missions from LEO to deep space.
The rise of heavy-lift launch vehicles is shifting the industry from an era of mass constraint to one of mass abundance, and we believe this new era demands a fundamentally different class of spacecraft. Engineered to survive the harshest radiation environments and to fully capitalize on today’s and tomorrow’s massive rockets, K2 satellites deliver unmatched capability at constellation scale and across multiple orbits.
With multiple launches planned through 2026 and 2027, we're Building Bigger 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 C space startup, we’d love for you to apply.
The Role
We are seeking a Senior Embedded Software Engineer to develop and enhance low‑level embedded software across the satellite platform. As a Senior Embedded Software Engineer, you’ll work closely with custom hardware to develop low-level software that brings our spacecraft to life. From initial hardware bring-up through fully integrated, flight-ready systems.
You’ll build embedded software that interfaces directly with sensors, actuators, and critical spacecraft subsystems, including propulsion, attitude control, and power. Your work will primarily be written in Rust and deployed on microcontrollers across our platform, requiring strong fundamentals in real-time systems, resource-constrained environments, and fault-tolerant design.
Responsibilities
- Create embedded software architecture for real-time, fault tolerant control of a 20kW+ spacecraft.
- Develop embedded software for new hardware integrated throughout the satellite.
- Extend embedded software applications for managing hardware on some of the largest satellites that have ever flown.
- Scale embedded software across different satellite products by building software infrastructure and development processes.
- Debug complex HW/FW issues using traditional debug tools (JTAG/SWD, logic analyzers, oscilloscopes), and custom debug hooks both on the ground and in orbiting satellites.
- Mentor a diverse team of software engineers and instill embedded software best practices.
Qualifications
- 5+ years of experience developing embedded software in either Rust, C, or C++, targeting microcontrollers (ARM, RISC-V, or similar).
- Strong understanding of your favorite microcontroller’s memory subsystem, instruction pipeline, interrupt and DMA controller.
- Experience collaborating with hardware engineering teams.
- Demonstrated ability to debug complex hardware/firmware issues.
Nice to haves
- Experience using Rust in hard real-time systems, either bare-metal or RTOS environments.
- Experience developing peripheral drivers without use of the vendor’s software.
- Experience with spacecraft flight software development.
- Experience maintaining embedded software across multiple product revisions.
- Experience with software verification and testing methods.
- Experience with software and network performance analysis and debugging.
- Experience with fault tolerant software design and implementation.
- Experience defining, creating, and maintaining test systems for both hardware-in-the-loop and hardware-out-of-the-loop.
Compensation and Benefits:
- Base salary range for this role is $160,000 - $220,000 + 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 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.
Export Compliance
As defined in the ITAR, “U.S. Persons” include U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents (i.e., Green Card holders), and certain protected individuals (e.g., refugees/asylees, American Samoans). Please consult with a knowledgeable advisor if you are unsure whether you are a “U.S. Person.”
The person hired for this role will have access to information and items controlled by U.S. export control regulations, including the export control regulations outlined in the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR). The person hired for this role must therefore either be a “U.S. person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15 or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export control license.
Equal Opportunity
K2 Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with K2 Space is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.
Ready to apply?
Apply to K2 Space
K2 is building the largest and highest-power satellites ever flown, unlocking performance levels previously out of reach across every orbit. Backed by $450M from leading investors including Altimeter Capital, Redpoint Ventures, T. Rowe Price, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Alpine Space Ventures, and others – with an additional $500M in signed contracts across commercial and US government customers – we’re mass-producing the highest-power satellite platforms ever built for missions from LEO to deep space.
The rise of heavy-lift launch vehicles is shifting the industry from an era of mass constraint to one of mass abundance, and we believe this new era demands a fundamentally different class of spacecraft. Engineered to survive the harshest radiation environments and to fully capitalize on today’s and tomorrow’s massive rockets, K2 satellites deliver unmatched capability at constellation scale and across multiple orbits.
With multiple launches planned through 2026 and 2027, we're Building Bigger 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 C 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.
As we continue to grow, we’re looking for a Cloud Engineer who shares our vision: someone who doesn’t just maintain cloud infrastructure — but thinks deeply about scalability, security, reliability, and how cloud systems power space-grade engineering and operations.
Responsibilities
- Design, build, deploy, and maintain cloud infrastructure supporting mission-critical workloads (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, FaaS) across production, staging, and development environments.
- Define and implement infrastructure-as-code (IaC) automation (Terraform, ARM/Bicep, etc.), CI/CD pipelines, configuration management, and other automation tooling to enable rapid, reproducible, and secure deployments.
- Collaborate with software, mission-ops, and DevOps teams to integrate cloud architecture into our development lifecycle (DevSecOps — from build to launch).
- Establish and manage identity and access management (IAM), role-based access, encryption, network security, secrets management, and compliance controls.
- Monitor and maintain the health, performance, and cost-effectiveness of cloud services; implement logging, monitoring, alerting, and capacity planning.
- Perform security assessments, threat modeling, vulnerability scans, compliance audits; develop mitigation strategies and drive best practices.
- Create clear documentation of architectures, relevant procedures, security policies, and infrastructure diagrams — and communicate across teams and stakeholders.
- Stay on top of cloud security threats, emerging technologies, and compliance requirements — and champion proactive improvements in our cloud posture.
Basic Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field — or equivalent practical experience.
- 5+ years (senior-level) hands-on experience managing cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure, GCP or similar), preferably across multiple cloud platforms.
- Strong proficiency with IaC tools (Terraform, ARM/Bicep, CloudFormation, etc.), CI/CD, configuration management, and scripting (e.g. Python, Bash, PowerShell).
- Solid understanding of cloud-native services (VMs, containers/Kubernetes, serverless, databases, networking, storage) and ability to design scalable, resilient architectures.
- Experience with container orchestration systems (Kubernetes, Docker) and modern deployment workflows.
- Deep knowledge of security best practices: IAM, encryption, network security (firewalls, VNets), secrets management, monitoring, logging, and compliance frameworks.
- Familiarity with (or willingness to learn) compliance regimes relevant to defense/space sector (e.g., FedRAMP, CMMC, ITAR, government-cloud environments) — especially if working on sensitive or government-facing projects.
- Excellent problem-solving skills, strong communication (verbal + writing), ability to work in cross-functional teams, and comfort working in a fast-paced, mission-driven startup environment.
Preferred Qualifications
- Advanced cloud certifications (e.g. AWS Solutions Architect/DevOps, Azure Administrator/DevOps/Security, Kubernetes certifications)
- Experience with hybrid clouds / Gov-cloud environments / regulated-space-industry compliance
- Prior experience supporting aerospace, defense, or highly regulated workloads
- Familiarity with GitOps workflows, MLOps pipelines, container-security tooling, secrets vaults (e.g. HashiCorp Vault), log aggregators / monitoring systems (e.g. ELK, Splunk), and automated incident response / forensics pipelines.
Compensation and Benefits:
- Base salary range for this role is $165,000 - $215,000 + 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 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.
Export Compliance
As defined in the ITAR, “U.S. Persons” include U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents (i.e., Green Card holders), and certain protected individuals (e.g., refugees/asylees, American Samoans). Please consult with a knowledgeable advisor if you are unsure whether you are a “U.S. Person.”
The person hired for this role will have access to information and items controlled by U.S. export control regulations, including the export control regulations outlined in the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR). The person hired for this role must therefore either be a “U.S. person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15 or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export control license.
Equal Opportunity
K2 Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with K2 Space is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.
Ready to apply?
Apply to K2 Space
K2 is building the largest and highest-power satellites ever flown, unlocking performance levels previously out of reach across every orbit. Backed by $450M from leading investors including Altimeter Capital, Redpoint Ventures, T. Rowe Price, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Alpine Space Ventures, and others – with an additional $500M in signed contracts across commercial and US government customers – we’re mass-producing the highest-power satellite platforms ever built for missions from LEO to deep space.
The rise of heavy-lift launch vehicles is shifting the industry from an era of mass constraint to one of mass abundance, and we believe this new era demands a fundamentally different class of spacecraft. Engineered to survive the harshest radiation environments and to fully capitalize on today’s and tomorrow’s massive rockets, K2 satellites deliver unmatched capability at constellation scale and across multiple orbits.
With multiple launches planned through 2026 and 2027, we're Building Bigger 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 C space startup, we’d love for you to apply.
Stay Connected with K2 Space for Future Job Openings Across Engineering
We’re on a mission to push the boundaries of what’s possible in space systems and large-scale satellite platforms. Even when we don’t have a specific opening listed, we’re always eager to connect with innovators, builders, and problem-solvers who share our passion for making space more accessible.
This is not a job application—it’s a way for you to raise your hand and say, “Keep me in the loop.” By joining our talent community, you’ll:
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Receive occasional updates about K2 Space projects, milestones, and future opportunities.
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Be among the first to know when a role opens that might align with your skills and interests.
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Stay engaged with our growing network of space enthusiasts and professionals.
Who Should Join
We welcome anyone excited about space technology and exploration—engineers, operators, mission designers, business minds, creatives, and everyone in between—who want to be part of K2 Space’s journey.
How to Join
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Fill out our brief interest form below.
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Share a resume and a quick note about your skills, passions, or areas of interest.
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We’ll keep you on our radar for future opportunities and updates.
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.
Export Compliance
As defined in the ITAR, “U.S. Persons” include U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents (i.e., Green Card holders), and certain protected individuals (e.g., refugees/asylees, American Samoans). Please consult with a knowledgeable advisor if you are unsure whether you are a “U.S. Person.”
The person hired for this role will have access to information and items controlled by U.S. export control regulations, including the export control regulations outlined in the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR). The person hired for this role must therefore either be a “U.S. person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15 or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export control license.
Equal Opportunity
K2 Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with K2 Space is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.
Ready to apply?
Apply to K2 Space