The bar
What you'll bring
- 5-7+ years of professional software development experience (this doesn’t have to be from a full-time role—there are many ways to gain valuable experience, and we’d love to hear about yours - tell us about internships, projects out of the classroom, or any personal projects)
- Completed bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Math or other related major (soft-requirement, tell us why you didn't pursue a degree, and what you've done in it's place)
- Preferred Qualifications:
- While we don’t expect you to have every skill listed below, we do expect you to take ownership of one or more areas and drive decisions and implementations where your strengths lie.
- Programming Languages (General): Proficiency in one or more of the following: Rust, Golang, C/C++
- Programming Languages (General):
- Proficiency in one or more of the following:
- Rust, Golang, C/C++
- Open to other languages that are suitable for distributed systems and/or high-performance computing and interested in strong opinions on the right language for various applications
- Strong problem-solving abilities
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills
- Ability to work in a fast-paced, dynamic environment
- Domain specific skills:
- Distributed Systems & Cloud Computing: Experience designing and implementing distributed systems
- Distributed Systems & Cloud Computing:
- Experience designing and implementing distributed systems
- Knowledge of cloud services (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud) and orchestration tools
- Familiarity with microservices architecture and serverless computing
- Hardware Interaction & FPGA: Experience with hardware control systems
- Hardware Interaction & FPGA:
- Experience with hardware control systems
- Familiarity with FPGA programming and orchestration
- Understanding of embedded systems development (FreeRTOS, Zephyr)
- Data Movement & Networking: Proficiency in architecting data pipelines for high-throughput environments
- Data Movement & Networking:
Additional notes
Other
About Northwood:
Northwood is on a mission to transform connectivity between Earth and space, bringing the benefits of space to the masses through innovations in space communications technologies. If you're passionate about building quickly and seeing your work deployed globally with real impact, we want you at Northwood.
Role:
As a Software Engineer at Northwood, you will be pivotal in designing, implementing, and optimizing the global service that delivers connectivity to our customers. You will have ownership over key areas - ranging from control of our antenna systems to the customer APIs that enable booking time on our network. An ideal candidate is someone who likes to work across areas of responsibility and can dive deep into high priority challenges.
Northwood is a full-stack company, with software development spanning everything from embedded systems and high speed networking to distributed web services. We seek versatile candidates who want to contribute across multiple areas while having a solid foundation in a few core areas of focus . Key areas of focus include—but are not limited to—the following (new team members will have the opportunity to work across these areas):
Cloud orchestration & distributed systems design Lead the end-to-end architecture of a global, distributed control plane that schedules hundreds of satellite passes per hour across mixed AWS/on-prem nodes
Cloud orchestration & distributed systems design
Lead the end-to-end architecture of a global, distributed control plane that schedules hundreds of satellite passes per hour across mixed AWS/on-prem nodes
Mentor teams on fault-tolerant patterns and land design RFCs that become Northwood standards
API, database & front end development Build and own customer-facing and internal control-plane APIs – craft, version, and operate the endpoints that let users search, reserve, update, and cancel satellite passes at multi-thousand-request scale
API, database & front end development
Build and own customer-facing and internal control-plane APIs – craft, version, and operate the endpoints that let users search, reserve, update, and cancel satellite passes at multi-thousand-request scale
Design and implement the underlying workflow-orchestrator that coordinates satellite communications across sites, reconciles conflicts, and enables autonomous coordination across the worlds largest ground network
Architect the real-time TT&C / data-transfer interfaces – deliver a secure, bidirectional streaming channel that carries command uplink, telemetry downlink, and supports near-real-time data delivery across Northwood’s global ground network.
Edge systems (ground station) Design and implement control systems for our ground station hardware, you will write software that interacts with everything from embedded systems to RF modems
Edge systems (ground station)
Design and implement control systems for our ground station hardware, you will write software that interacts with everything from embedded systems to RF modems
High bandwidth data movement Architect and optimize data pipelines for efficient movement of data between ground stations and various end environments
High bandwidth data movement
Architect and optimize data pipelines for efficient movement of data between ground stations and various end environments
Architect a Tbps-class SD-WAN overlay (WireGuard + QUIC) that transparently shifts traffic between sites, S3-compatible buckets and customer VPCs, with per-flow QoS and FEC.
Monitoring & alerting systems Create comprehensive monitoring and alerting solutions for software and infrastructure
Monitoring & alerting systems
Create comprehensive monitoring and alerting solutions for software and infrastructure
Implement tools to ensure continuous uptime and rapid issue resolution
Global telemetry capabilities Transform our telemetry data into actionable insights, enabling predictive diagnostics to address issues before they arise; keep our customers informed about relevant operations in real time
Global telemetry capabilities
Transform our telemetry data into actionable insights, enabling predictive diagnostics to address issues before they arise; keep our customers informed about relevant operations in real time
Infrastructure, security & pipelines A global network requires global deployments, and Northwood is committed to building a secure, reliable, and stable pipeline. This infrastructure empowers our developers to deploy changes continuously—without the risk of disrupting the system or relying on 'testing in prod.'
Infrastructure, security & pipelines