Ground Station Software Engineer, Space Operations

Ground Station Software Engineer, Space Operations 

San Francisco, CA, Louisville, CO, or Remote 

Description: 

Capella is at the forefront of making vital information about our world accessible in a timely manner. We’re leveraging proven technologies and building new capabilities to create a constellation of SAR satellites that can collect information about any spot on the planet within an hour. 

At Capella you’ll work in a collaborative team environment, alongside smart people with a history of space mission success. No prior space experience is needed—we’re looking for people excited about tackling seemingly impossible challenges, learning new skills and concepts, and helping each other achieve success. 

Our mission and our products are meant to understand the whole world and help everyone in it, regardless of race, creed, or any other distinction. We believe in a diverse and inclusive workplace, and we encourage all people to join our team and bring their unique perspective to help make us stronger. 

We value diversity at Capella and welcome applications from those who are traditionally underrepresented in tech. If you like the sound of this position but are not sure if you are the perfect fit, please apply!  

Role: 

Software engineers in space operations are charged with building the applications, services, and infrastructure that run our satellite constellation. As a Ground Stations specialist, you’ll work on integrating with various ground station and communications providers across the world to help build, maintain, and enhance Capella’s network. You’re an independent problem solver that seeks out ways to make our systems better, learns new concepts, and wants to help build software to modernize spacecraft operations. As part of the space operations team, you will be interacting daily with other software engineers, spacecraft operators, satellite engineers, and data product engineers to develop a highly autonomous spacecraft operations system. We expect all Space Operations team members to work on a variety of problems across the spacecraft operations space, be familiar with how the spacecraft functions, and be capable of commanding and controlling it.  

You’ll be responsible for building, testing, deploying, and maintaining the applications that run our ground network—from creating software to facilitate communications across our ground stack and constellation, to writing a data processing pipeline that manages gigabits of data per second, you’ll work across a variety of problems. We are a team of flexible engineers, addressing challenges at all levels of the stack, building improvements, operating our environments, handling support, and thoroughly testing changes. For this position we are looking for a software engineer with a strong interest in building and operating highly reliable, well-documented, and rigorously-tested applications that push the bounds of what has been accomplished in spacecraft communications. The position is available in San Francisco, Louisville, or remote. 

Ideal Qualifications: 

• Background in Electrical or Computer Engineering 
• Knowledge of, or experience with, Software Defined Radios, Digital Communications, and Digital Signal Processing 
• Professional experience building high-reliability, continuously-up applications in Python, Rust, Go, or other languages 
• Experience working with satellite ground stations  
• Understanding of with high-speed network communications 
• Knowledge of real-time data processing concepts and systems 
• Expertise with logging, monitoring, and metrics tracking for large software systems. 
• Flexibility to work on a wide range of ground station problems — from modem debugging to system performance modeling and analysis 
• Enjoy working collaboratively, learning from teammates, and sharing your knowledge with others

 

 Benefits: 

In addition to an opportunity to take part in an innovative and fast-growing business with a highly motivated and skilled team, we also take pride in taking care of our employees. Here are just a few ways that we show our appreciation: 

• Medical/Dental/Vision Insurance  
• Short and Long Term Disability and Life Insurance 
• 401(k) plan 
• Flexible vacation policy  
• Gourmet-style, daily lunch 
• Weekly Capella community events 
• Equity 
• Commuter benefits including Transit Flex Spending and baywheels membership 
• Dog-friendly work environment (SF)