Senior Software Engineer, Satellite Command and Control
Anduril · Costa Mesa, United States · 2mo ago
Anduril Industries is a defense technology company with a mission to transform U.S. and allied military capabilities with advanced technology. By bringing the expertise, technology, and business model of the 21st century’s most innovative companies to the defense industry, Anduril is changing how military systems are designed, built and sold. Anduril’s family of systems is powered by Lattice OS, an AI-powered operating system that turns thousands of data streams into a realtime, 3D command and control center. As the world enters an era of strategic competition, Anduril is committed to bringing cutting-edge autonomy, AI, computer vision, sensor fusion, and networking technology to the military in months, not years.
ABOUT THE TEAM
Anduril's Space team is dedicated to expanding our AI-powered capabilities into the final frontier, enhancing Space Domain Awareness, Space Control, and Command and Control for U.S. military and allied partners. We're developing fully integrated hardware and software systems, including Lattice for Space Missions and modular payloads, to address growing threats in space and ensure our Guardians maintain a decisive advantage in this contested warfighting domain.
The Lattice for Space C2 (LSC2) team owns the ground command-and-control platform — the services that interface directly with radios, ground-station networks, and flight computers to execute satellite missions in production.
ABOUT THE JOB
As a Senior Software Engineer on Space Ground Software, you will own the architecture, delivery, and operation of the command-and-control software that flies real space missions — the ground-side services that plan missions, command spacecraft, ingest and serve telemetry, drive antennas and ground stations, and keep deployed satellite systems running in production. You will develop modular capabilities on top of the Anduril Lattice software platform to support DoD and IC customers across the space domain, architecting Space C2 services, infrastructure, algorithms, and integrations that span both orbital and ground systems. The Anduril Space C2 capability development will involve integration with legacy systems that have been part of our nation's critical defense for decades, as well as new space systems being added to the set of orbital and ground-based capabilities.
We work with mission partners and operators to deploy reliable and robust capabilities on operationally-relevant fielding timelines to meet complex challenges across the DOD and IC.
WHAT YOU’LL DO
- Own the architecture of Space C2 services and the software solutions deployed to customers, end-to-end — from API/proto design through deployment to production operation
- Design, build, and operate backend services across the Space C2 stack (Go, gRPC/Protobuf): command & telemetry, mission and plan management, ground-station and antenna brokering, space-to-ground protocol stacks, file transfer, and access control
- Write and evolve protobuf API contracts, coordinating interface changes across teams
- Drive technical RFCs and architecture decisions for new subsystem capabilities
- Deploy and run services in secure government cloud on containers/Kubernetes, own operational readiness, and lead on-call and incident response for live missions
- Integrate with spacecraft and ground infrastructure — software-defined radios, antenna pointing, ground-station providers, space-to-ground data links, and astrodynamics (orbit propagation, maneuver planning, satellite state)
- Build and run software-in-the-loop (SITL) simulation to validate end-to-end operations before live passes
- Integrate with legacy systems to unlock 21st-century capabilities
- Set the quality bar through rigorous code review, and mentor other engineers — code review is a core, first-class part of the job on this team
- Collaborate across multiple teams to plan, build, and test complex functionality
- Create and analyze metrics for debugging and monitoring; triage issues, root cause failures, and coordinate next-steps
- Partner with end-users to turn needs into features while balancing user experience with engineering constraints
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Strong engineering background from industry or school, ideally in areas/fields such as Computer Science, Software Engineering, Mathematics, or Physics
- 8+ years building backend and distributed systems, primarily in a systems language (Go, Rust, or C++), with networked services using gRPC/Protobuf — and comfortable working primarily in Go
- Proven experience architecting, shipping, and operating production services on containers/Kubernetes, with real CI/CD and cloud deployment
- Experience integrating software with physical systems — hardware control, embedded interfaces, protocol implementation, or real-time data pipelines
- Track record of owning production services end-to-end (design through operations) and a demonstrated ability to raise the engineering bar for others
- Ability to quickly understand and navigate complex systems and detailed requirements, and to solve complex technical problems with little oversight
- Strong collaboration and code-review discipline, with clear communication, documentation/training habits, and a track record of mentoring
- A desire to work on critical software that has a real-world impact
- Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Top Secret SCI security clearance
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Space/aerospace domain experience: telemetry & commanding, ground stations and antenna systems, RF/waveform/link-layer, orbital mechanics, or GNC
- Experience with space C2 software systems and spacecraft operations
- Experience with CCSDS protocols (TM/TC framing, CFDP, virtual channels) or similar layered communication standards
- Experience with binary protocol parsing — deserializing wire formats, implementing framing layers, or working with annotation-driven codecs
- Previous exposure to software-defined radios, RF modems, or satellite communication equipment
- Experience with deployment and infrastructure-as-code tooling such as Kubernetes, FluxCD, Helm, Terraform, or Nix, and government cloud (e.g., Azure Gov)
- Experience operating live systems (on-call, incident response) and building observability/metrics
- Nix-based build systems or reproducible/hermetic build toolchains
- Familiarity with time systems (UTC, TAI, GPS time) and coordinate frames (ECI, ECEF, ENU)
- Previous exposure to space-related simulation and hardware-in-the-loop integration
- Comfort working in secure/compliance-constrained (CUI, TS, gov) environments
The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a wide range of compensation factors, inclusive of base salary only. Actual salary offer may vary based on (but not limited to) work experience, education and/or training, critical skills, and/or business considerations. Highly competitive equity grants are included in the majority of full time offers; and are considered part of Anduril's total compensation package. Additionally, Anduril offers top-tier benefits for full-time employees, including:
Benefits
At Anduril, we invest in our people. Our comprehensive, competitive benefits package (available at little to no cost to employees) ensures you’re supported in health, recovery, and whatever comes next. For more information, Explore Our Benefits.
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