Lead Software Engineer

Department: Engineering

Location: Torrance, CA

Compensation: $174K – $260K

Employment Type: FullTime

Northwood is a modern space infrastructure company bringing the benefits of space to the masses through advanced communications technology. We are building a global network of phased array ground stations that enable real-time, reliable communication for satellite missions such as national security, global connectivity, and disaster response. With a vertically integrated approach, Northwood designs, builds, and rapidly deploys scalable systems that power the next generation of space missions. If you like solving complex challenges and seeing your work deployed around the world with real impact, Northwood is the place to do it.

Role:

Northwood Space is looking for a Lead Software Engineer to own and grow our Cloud team in our Torrance office. Northwood's backend organization is split across three domains: Cloud, Ground, and Data. The Cloud team is responsible for all of Northwood's cloud services, the orchestration of our global ground station network, and the data plane responsible for routing gigabits to terabits per second of data across the world.

In this role, you will lead the team building the cloud platform that manages global antenna scheduling, customer booking, service provisioning, and network orchestration. You will set technical direction for scalable systems handling resource allocation, billing, and customer-facing APIs, while defining the boundaries and contracts between cloud, ground sites, and data systems. Your expertise in cloud architecture and distributed systems will be essential in creating reliable, performant services that handle complex scheduling constraints while delivering a simple customer experience.

Responsibilities:

• Lead the Cloud team: set technical direction, mentor engineers, drive execution, and own delivery of Northwood's cloud services end to end

• Design and develop Northwood's cloud-based booking and reservation system for global antenna network access

• Build and maintain customer-facing APIs and portals for everything from scheduling and booking to automated network rerouting

• Implement sophisticated workflows that provide strong guarantees to our customers and make the most out of every site we deploy across the world

• Own the orchestration layer that coordinates antenna operations across our global network, including the interfaces and contracts between cloud services and on-site ground systems

• Design and operate the control plane, dataplane and telemetry delivery path, ensuring seamless integration across on-premises and cloud environments

• Develop billing and metering systems that accurately track resource usage and generate invoices

• Drive the design and implementation of a comprehensive monitoring solution to ensure continuous platform uptime

• Collaborate with the Ground and Data teams, site operations, and network operations to build a truly resilient global network

• Work with customers on defining secure and scalable interfaces for Telemetry, Tracking, and Control (TT&C) and payload data transfer, putting simplicity and extensibility first

Basic Qualifications:

• 6+ years of professional software development experience

• 3+ years building and scaling cloud-based services and APIs in production environments

• Experience leading engineering teams or projects as a tech lead, with a track record of mentoring engineers and driving technical direction

• Experience with distributed scheduling systems, resource allocation, or booking platforms

• Proficiency in modern cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud)

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with one or more of the following languages:

  • Rust, Golang, Haskell, etc.

  • Open to other languages suitable for cloud services and distributed systems

• Experience building global-scale customer-facing platforms with high reliability requirements

• Experience defining service boundaries and interfaces across hybrid cloud and on-premises environments

• Knowledge of API design, authentication, and access control best practices

• Experience with event-driven architectures and message queues

• Experience with high-throughput data delivery, streaming pipelines, or telemetry systems

• Familiarity with billing systems, usage tracking, or subscription management

• Understanding of simulation and modeling (satellite propagation, etc.)

• Experience with Kubernetes, containerization, and CI/CD pipelines

• Knowledge of satellite communications or relevant domain experience (beneficial but not required)

Additional Information:

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

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Northwood Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Northwood 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.