Software Engineer - Platform - Early Career

## About Northwood Northwood is a modern space infrastructure company bringing the benefits of space to the masses through advanced communications technology. We are building a global network of phased array ground stations that enable real-time, reliable communication for satellite missions such as national security, global connectivity, and disaster response. With a vertically integrated approach, Northwood designs, builds, and rapidly deploys scalable systems that power the next generation of space missions. ## Role Northwood engineers and operators run hardware and software across a global network of antenna ground stations and the cloud services behind them. Platform Engineering builds the software that takes Northwood products from first prototype to full operation. That covers how code is built, tested, and released, how every site and service is monitored, and how hardware in remote locations is brought online, updated, and kept healthy. As an early-career Software Engineer on the Platform team, you'll ship to real production systems from your first weeks, with close mentorship, and take on more ownership as you show you're ready. You don't need to know every part of the stack today. You need to learn fast, reason clearly through problems you haven't seen before, and care a lot about what you build. ## Key Areas of Focus - Delivery and release: Build CI and release pipelines that take code from commit to production, in the cloud and at ground stations around the world. Make shipping safe and continuous, with staged rollouts and fast rollback. - Simulation and test: Build simulated ground stations and lab test benches running real hardware, and tools that replay recorded data through the system to catch problems early. - Ground station operations: Automate how new sites are brought online, configured, and updated. Write software that runs on servers next to the antennas, and keep a global fleet healthy. - Observability: Build monitoring, logging, and alerting that show the health of every service and site. Turn raw telemetry into signals engineers and operators can act on. - Internal platform and tools: Build backend services and web interfaces engineers and operators use to create, ship, and run software. - Infrastructure and security: Define cloud and site infrastructure as code. Build identity, secrets management, and least-privilege access into the platform. ## Basic Qualifications - 0 to 2 years of professional software experience. Internships, research, open source, and projects outside the classroom all count. - Bachelor's degree in computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, math, or a related field (soft requirement). - Has written real software in at least one general-purpose language (such as Python, Go, Rust, TypeScript, or C++) beyond required coursework. - Has built and shipped something other people used or relied on. - Has solved a hard technical problem largely on their own, such as debugging a non-obvious failure or designing a system from scratch. ## Preferred Qualifications - Proficiency in one or more languages (such as Python, Go, Rust, or TypeScript). - Full stack experience: built a backend API and a frontend that uses it. - Exposure to CI pipelines, containers (Docker), a cloud platform (AWS), or infrastructure as code (Terraform or CloudFormation). - Day-to-day comfort with Linux and the command line, or coursework in operating systems, networking, or distributed systems. - Built a tool, script, or library other developers used. - Projects involving hardware, embedded systems, RF, robotics, or space. - Track record of going past what was asked, such as side projects, competitions, or research. - Comfort with AI coding tools (such as Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor). ## Additional Information To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Northwood Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer.