Senior Software Build Engineer (Aerospace AI)
Actalent · Tukwila, WA
$67–$77/hrfrom the description
Jul 21, 2026
Tukwila, WA
Jul 23, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A contract role focused on building and maintaining the software infrastructure behind satellite flight software, including CI/CD pipelines, build systems, device emulators, and cloud-based tooling. Day-to-day work spans Python development, Linux toolchains, and automation scripting, with involvement in requirements, testing, and root cause analysis for embedded and real-time space systems. Suits an experienced build/release engineer comfortable in Agile settings with minimal supervision.
Senior level · 6+ years · Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA · Contract
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 85 people in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 15–130
Applicant volume Moderate — A normal amount of company. The rare requirements below are what will separate a shortlisted application from the rest.
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $170,959 (middle half $135,720–$216,519). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (9)
The role is posted by Actalent, a staffing firm, placing a contractor at a satellite/space-intelligence company in Tukwila, WA. The hybrid arrangement (1–2 days/week on-site) means it is not fully remote.
AWS is listed in the responsibilities section ('services such as AWS') rather than a formal requirements block, but it is framed as a core deployment responsibility and treated as a hard gate accordingly.
Jira is mentioned in the responsibilities section as the task management tool used; included as required given the firm operational framing.
The JD states 'Ability to support programs that may require U.S. citizenship' — this is a conditional notice, not a hard clearance gate, so no clearance is flagged.
The bachelor's degree requirement accepts 'equivalent experience,' so no minimum degree is flagged.
C, C++, and Rust appear together under Additional Skills & Qualifications (preferred section) as interchangeable options for embedded/systems-level development; emitted as a single preferred skill with alternatives.
Hardware interface terms (GPIO, I2C, RS-422) and Verilog/HDL toolchains appear under Additional Skills & Qualifications and are marked preferred.
The alt SOC (15-1244) is noted because the role has a strong infrastructure/operations flavor (build systems, CI/CD, cloud infra), but the emphasis on writing Python tooling, device emulators, and engineering clean code tips it to 15-1252 Software Developers.
Posting is for a contract engagement — the market benchmarks below price full-time roles, so read the comp comparison with that in mind.
Read the full posting
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