Wanna join the adventure? Loft Orbital is looking for a Flight Dynamics Software Engineer to join the Ground Platform organization. You'll work on a small and driven team, developing our flight dynamics software stack so that it can: Scale to fly 50+ satellites in orbit in a highly automated, reliable, and safe (from a collision avoidance perspective) manner Enable new conops and customer missions with demanding orbit determination, stationkeeping, and attitude performance requirements We're looking for someone with a solid theoretical understanding of astrodynamics, operational flight-dynamics experience, and software-engineering foundations. If you enjoy solving hard problems and working in a fast-paced and supportive environment, we'd love to hear from you. We’re hiring for one position across multiple locations - you only need to apply once.
About this role
Implement and improve upon algorithms for orbit determination, orbit propagation, maneuver planning (stationkeeping/orbit transfer), conjunction assessment, collision avoidance, and attitude modeling, contributing to our open-source astrodynamics tooling that powers both flight operations and simulation work across the company
Develop and maintain the in-house flight dynamics ground software backend applications that compute, store, and serve our fleet’s ephemerides, maneuvers, conjunctions, target orbits, etc
Interface with systems and mission engineers to help translate technical mission requirements and customer demands into operational outcomes in orbit
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- Support satellite operations engineers by providing astrodynamics expertise during LEOP/anomalies/conjunction response and assisting with configuring our software stack for various customer missions
- Must Haves:
- Bachelor's degree in physics or an engineering discipline
Deep technical understanding of some of the following topics: orbital mechanics, state estimation, spacecraft maneuver planning, conjunction assessment, and spacecraft attitude modeling
Fundamentals of numerical methods: solvers, optimization, and simulation techniques
Experience with designing and developing software libraries and backend services, in Python
- Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal
- Nice to Haves:
- Master’s degree in physics or an engineering discipline
Proficiency in astrodynamics tools such as STK, Astrogator, GMAT, OreKit, Monte, Copernicus, OpenSpaceToolkit, or equivalent
Demonstrated practical experience in spacecraft constellation flight dynamics operations
Demonstrated practical experience building high-performance backend software applications and/or libraries
- Capable of solving complex problems within a highly collaborative environment
- Some of Our Awesome Benefits:
- Equity, we want you to have an active role in our success
Up to 35 days of Paid Time Off (vacations & RTT ) and flexible working hours, we want you to be at your best
Health and life insurance, we care about your health
Lunch Vouchers, because let’s be honest, we love food! (we even have a slack channel about it #loft-gourmand)
Cross-office travel opportunities between San Francisco, Colorado, and Toulouse to learn from our differences
Company and team off-sites and many other events to work & celebrate together
Relocation assistance to Toulouse when applicable