Senior Software Engineer; Space Communications

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.

As a Software Engineer at Northwood, you will be pivotal in designing, implementing, and optimizing the global service that delivers connectivity to our customers. You will have ownership over key areas ranging from control of our antenna systems to the customer APIs that enable booking time on our network. An ideal candidate is someone who likes to work across areas of responsibility and can dive deep into high priority challenges.

• Cloud orchestration & distributed systems design – lead the end‑to‑end architecture of a global, distributed control plane that schedules hundreds of satellite passes per hour across mixed AWS/on‑prem nodes, mentor teams on fault‑tolerant patterns, and land design RFCs that become Northwood standards.
• API, database & front‑end development – build and own customer‑facing and internal control‑plane APIs, craft, version, and operate the endpoints that let users search, reserve, update, and cancel satellite passes at multi‑thousand‑request scale. Design and implement the underlying workflow‑orchestrator that coordinates satellite communications across sites, reconciles conflicts, and enables autonomous coordination across Northwood’s global ground network. Architect the real‑time TT&C / data‑transfer interfaces – deliver a secure, bidirectional streaming channel that carries command uplink, telemetry downlink, and supports near‑real‑time data delivery.
• Edge systems (ground station) – design and implement control systems for our ground station hardware; write software that interacts with everything from embedded systems to RF modems.
• High bandwidth data movement – architect and optimize data pipelines for efficient movement of data between ground stations and various end environments. Architect a Tbps‑class SD‑WAN overlay (Wire Guard + QUIC) that transparently shifts traffic between sites, S3‑compatible buckets and customer VPCs, with per‑flow QoS and FEC.
• Monitoring & alerting systems – create comprehensive monitoring and alerting solutions for software and infrastructure, and implement tools to ensure continuous uptime and rapid issue resolution.
• Global telemetry capabilities – transform our telemetry data into actionable insights, enabling predictive diagnostics to address issues before they arise; keep our customers informed about relevant operations in real time.
• Infrastructure, security & pipelines – build a secure, reliable, and stable pipeline that empowers our developers to deploy changes continuously without disrupting the system or relying on "testing in prod."
• Production line software & testing – develop software for production line bring‑up and testing, automate testing procedures, and work alongside mechanical/RF/EE/FPGA and SW engineers to ensure system correctness, performance, and reliability before leaving the manufacturing line.
• Simulation & orchestration software – create simulations that model satellite and network design, develop simulation tools for testing and validating system performance, and design and implement software that orchestrates our global antenna network and data plane.

• 5–7+ years of professional software development experience (including internships, projects, or personal work).
• Completed bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Mathematics, or a related major (or an equivalent path if a degree was not pursued).

• Programming
  
  Languages:
  
  Proficiency in one or more of Rust, Golang, C/C++. Open to other languages suitable for distributed…