Backend Engineer - Python

Backend Engineer – Python Location: Denver, Seattle, San Francisco or Washington, DC Working arrangement: Hybrid Compensation: $150,000–$180,000 base salary plus equity Employment type: Full-time About The Company Join a venture-backed software company building modern infrastructure for satellite operations. The platform enables commercial and government customers to operate different spacecraft and constellations through one scalable software environment. The company was founded by experienced engineers and satellite operators who saw an opportunity to replace fragmented, highly customized ground systems with modern, reusable software. Approximately 70 employees with a highly technical, engineering-led cultureMeaningful equity and direct product influenceSoftware supporting real commercial and government missionsSmall teams with significant technical ownershipOpportunity to build foundational systems rather than maintain legacy softwareCollaborative environment with experienced engineers across software, aerospace and operations The Role We are looking for a Backend Engineer to build the foundational services behind a modern satellite-operations platform. This is a hands-on product-engineering role focused primarily on production Python. It is not a DevOps or platform-infrastructure position. You will design and build backend services, APIs and data systems used by customers operating real spacecraft and distributed mission systems. A space background is not required. Strong backend engineers from SaaS, telecom, networking, IoT, robotics, fintech or other complex technical environments are encouraged to apply. What You’ll Do Design, build and maintain production Python backend servicesDevelop scalable APIs and foundational platform capabilitiesOwn features from technical design through testing, deployment and production supportBuild reliable services that process and distribute operational dataDesign integrations between internal services and external customer systemsWork with relational and non-relational databasesImprove service performance, reliability, observability and securityTroubleshoot issues across applications, databases and distributed systemsCollaborate with product, frontend, platform and aerospace engineering teamsHelp shape architecture and engineering standards as the platform scalesContribute to a fast-moving product environment with meaningful individual ownership Required Experience At least three years of professional backend or full-stack software developmentStrong hands-on production Python experienceExperience building APIs, microservices or other backend applicationsPractical AWS experienceExperience working with databases and data modelsUnderstanding of testing, debugging and production software supportAbility to clearly explain personal ownership, technical decisions and engineering tradeoffsComfortable working independently within a collaborative startup environment Nice to Have GraphQL or substantial REST API developmentDocker and KubernetesTerraform or other infrastructure-as-code toolsCI/CD and automated testingEvent-driven or asynchronous architecturesDistributed systems or high-volume data processingPostgreSQL, Redis or comparable data technologiesDevSecOps or security-conscious application developmentGenerative AI or LLM integrationsExperience in telecom, networking, aerospace, robotics, IoT or remote-system operations What Success Looks Like You can personally own a production service from design through deploymentYou write clean, maintainable and well-tested PythonYou understand how your services operate in productionYou can make thoughtful architectural decisions and explain the tradeoffsYou are comfortable entering unfamiliar technical areas and learning quicklyYou take responsibility for outcomes rather than working within a narrowly defined task list Eligibility Due to the nature of the company’s commercial and government work, candidates must satisfy applicable U.S. export-control requirements.