Flight Dynamics Software Engineer
Posted
Summary
At Loft Orbital in Toulouse, this engineer builds and maintains the in-house flight-dynamics software stack — orbit determination, propagation, maneuver planning, collision avoidance, and attitude modeling — as Python backend services and open-source astrodynamics tooling that automates flying a 50+ satellite fleet, while supporting ops during LEOP, anomalies, and conjunction response.
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.
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
- 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, preferably 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
*Research shows that while men apply to jobs where they meet an average of 60% of the criteria, women and other underrepresented people tend to only apply when they meet 100% of the qualifications. At Loft, we value respectful debate and people who aren’t afraid to challenge assumptions. We strongly encourage you to apply, even if you don’t check all the boxes.
Who We Are
Loft: Space Made Simple.
Founded in 2017, Loft provides governments, companies, and research institutions with a fast, reliable, and simple way to deploy missions in orbit.
We integrate, launch, and operate spacecraft, offering end-to-end missions as a service across Earth observation, IoT connectivity, on-orbit AI, national security missions, and more. Leveraging our existing space infrastructure and an extensive inventory of satellite buses, Loft is reducing years-long integration and launch timelines to months. With more than 30 missions flown, Loft’s flight heritage and proven technologies enable customers to focus on their mission objectives.
With a growing fleet on track to reach 30 satellites by 2027, we are scaling up quickly across our offices in San Francisco, CA | Golden, CO | and Toulouse, France to meet accelerating demand for space infrastructure.
As an international company your resume will be reviewed by people across our offices so please attach a copy in English.
Skills
As published by lever · 9 questions · 3 written answers
Basics
Resume/CV, Full name, Email, Phone, Current location, Current company, LinkedIn URL, Twitter URL, GitHub URL, Portfolio URL, Other website
Short answers (1)
- What is your notice period and when would you be available to start?
Pick from a list (5)
- This role requires at least 3 days a week in the office, are you able to easily commute to the location the role is based in? optional
- If not, would you be open to relocating? Please note, we do provide relocation assistance optional
- This role is based in our Toulouse office, do you have an existing right to work in France? Or do you require visa sponsorship? optional
- A resume in English is required for your profile to be reviewed by our international team. Have you included a resume in English? optional
- Which programming language is explicitly mentioned in the job description? optional
Written answers (3)
- How did you hear about us? (LinkedIn, job board, recruiter outreach, employee referral, etc.)
- Any other information you would like us to know? optional
- Describe a technical project or challenge you’ve worked on that best demonstrates your ability to combine software engineering with flight dynamics or astrodynamics. What problem were you solving, what was your approach, and what was your personal contribution?