Mission Software Engineer

Overview

Varda is accelerating the development of commercial space infrastructure, from in‑orbit pharmaceutical processing to reliable and economical reentry capsules. Varda’s W‑Series vehicles are built, designed, and operated in‑house, including the pharmaceutical processing payloads, the capsules, the C‑PICA heat shields, and the satellite buses.

From life‑saving pharmaceuticals to more powerful fiber optics, there is a world of products used on Earth today that can only be manufactured in space. Varda is accelerating innovation in the orbital economy by creating the products and infrastructure needed so space can directly benefit life on Earth. Our mission is to expand the economic bounds of humankind.

Our team is uniquely suited to accomplishing this goal, with leadership and staff comprised of veterans from SpaceX, Blue Origin, major pharmaceutical companies and Silicon Valley. Varda was founded in January 2021 by Will Bruey and Delian Asparouhov with significant backing from world‑class investors including Khosla Ventures, Lux Capital, Founders Fund, Caffeinated Capital, General Catalyst, and Also Capital.

Varda is headquartered in El Segundo, California, with additional offices in Washington, DC and Huntsville, AL. This role requires working full‑time on‑site at our El Segundo office.

The Mission Software team is responsible for Varda’s critical ground‑segment software and the platform it runs on, which enables spacecraft operations. You will work at the intersection of telemetry and commanding, data acquisition and distribution, mission control interfaces, simulation and test automation, with reliable deployment across lab, test range, and mission operations environments.

• Own Ground Segment Services: Develop and maintain high‑reliability services for telemetry ingestion, scaling, distribution, and commanding. Ensure deterministic behavior for real‑time operations and post‑flight analysis.
• Mission Control Interfaces: Deliver operator‑grade UIs and dashboards that optimize ops time and reduce cognitive load across integration, test, and on‑orbit operations phases.
• Simulation and Test Automation: Build tools to run flight‑software simulations, device emulators, and scenario‑based automated tests, enabling fast, safe iteration for avionics, GNC, and operations teams.
• Build the Mission Platform: Design, implement, and product ionize software for mission and ground software teams. Standardize CI/CD pipelines, artifact management, service templates, infrastructure‑as‑code, simulation and hardware‑in‑the‑loop frameworks, test harnesses, and observability—delivered as self‑service tooling.
• Deployments Across Environments: Create robust deployment patterns for lab benches, test stands, and mission networks. Implement safe rollout/rollback strategies and air‑gapped or limited‑connectivity deployment approaches.

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, mathematics, physics, engineering, or equivalent technical experience in safety‑critical software.
• 3+ years of experience developing spacecraft or similar safety‑critical software.
• Expertise with Python development and a strong understanding of core language concepts.
• Strong systems fundamentals: concurrency, networking, performance, reliability.
• Experience building real‑time data acquisition, scaling, and distribution services—low‑latency messaging, time‑series and relational stores.
• Hands‑on experience with CI/CD, dependency/build systems, and infrastructure‑as‑code.
• End‑to‑end observability experience: logging, metrics, tracing.
• Docker/Kubernetes; release management, phased rollouts, and operational readiness for controlled networks.

• Proficiency in C++, Ansible, and/or NiceGUI.
• Experience with DAQ and closed‑loop control in lab/test control environments.
• Prior work on CI/testing/simulation/data tools integrated with flight software teams.
• Experience with requirements, test, and certification artifacts from safety‑critical or certified workflows.
• Knowledge of ground systems standards and security in mission networks.
• Experience building…