Staff Software Engineer - Backend

Department: Engineering

Location: Torrance, CA, Washington D.C.

Compensation: $161K – $224K • Offers Equity

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 backend focused Staff Engineer to join our Software team. In this role, you will lead the development of our cloud-based platform that manages global antenna scheduling, customer booking, and service provisioning. You will design and implement scalable systems for resource allocation, billing, and customer-facing APIs that enable seamless access to our space communication network. 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:

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

• Build and maintain customer-facing APIs and interfaces for everything from scheduling to real time communications and data routing

• Design and implement Northwood's control and data planes, ensuring seamless integration across on-premises and cloud environments

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

• Create orchestration systems to coordinate antenna operations across our global network

• Collaborate with Customers, network operations, and the larger software team 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:

• 7+ years of professional software development experience

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

• 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, etc…

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

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

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

• Experience with event-driven architectures and message queues

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

• Understanding of simulation and modeling (Satellite propogation, 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.