Backend Engineer - Mission Operations Services
Loft Orbital Solutions · Golden
$140,000–$190,000
Jun 28, 2026
Golden
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A backend engineering role focused on building and maintaining the microservices that sit between ground systems and flight software for a satellite fleet. Day-to-day work involves designing Python-based services for commanding satellites, handling telemetry, and supporting mission automation, with an occasional hands-on role in live spacecraft operations. Best suited to production Python developers with API design experience and an interest in mission-critical systems.
Mid level · San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA · Full-time
Pay in the description: $140,000–$190,000
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
Posted 2 times — it's one opening, so apply once.
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 5,200 people in the San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, CA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 3,900–6,800
Applicant volume Heavy — This req sits in a large pool with little in its requirements to thin it, and auto-apply tools fire at everything in the occupation. Applying early and leading with the rare skills below is what gets read.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $186,640 (middle half $163,500–$219,670). 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 (6)
The title is 'Backend Engineer' with no level modifier, so advertised seniority is Unspecified. The requirements (no stated years of experience, entry-to-mid-level gates) support a Mid-level classification.
The posting lists three office locations (San Francisco, CA; Golden, CO; Toulouse, France) with no indication of remote work. San Francisco is listed first and is the company's primary HQ, so it is used as the CBSA anchor; the role may also be filled in Golden, CO or Toulouse, France.
Toulouse, France is a non-US location; however, the posting is clearly US-primary and the compensation is in USD, so the US-based flag of true is appropriate.
The 'Must Haves' section lists a backend web framework requirement with Django, Flask, and FastAPI as named examples. Django is used as the primary skill name (it also appears in the Nice to Haves as a standalone preferred skill), with Flask and FastAPI as alternatives. The API design requirement (HTTP/GraphQL/REST) is captured as REST with GraphQL as an alternative.
GraphQL also appears independently under 'Nice to Haves' as a standalone preferred skill, so it is emitted separately as preferred in addition to being an alternative for the required API design skill.
The 'Nice to Haves' section explicitly labels all items as optional/preferred: Django/GraphQL, database experience (Postgres, time-series DBs), Kubernetes, InfluxDB/TimescaleDB, and mission-critical systems background. The last item (mission-critical/distributed/real-time systems) is a domain background, not a named technology, and is omitted per extraction rules.
Read the full posting
The employer publishes the full description on their own site — read it there ↗. Or sign in to read it here — it's free, and it also lets you track this application.