Senior Software Engineer (Ground Segment)

Open Cosmos Ltd
Didcot, OX11 0RL, United Kingdom
3 months ago
Job Type
Permanent
Work Pattern
Full-time
Work Location
On-site
Seniority
Senior
Education
Degree
Posted
15 Feb 2026 (3 months ago)

Benefits

Mission-driven company Diverse and supportive team

Aim high and Go Beyond!

At Open Cosmos we are solving the world’s biggest challenges from space, providing businesses, governments and researchers access to more readily available information than ever before.

We build, test, launch and operate satellites to solve the problems of our customers. It’s an exciting time to join as we scale up to meet the demands of the fast-growing space industry.

Working in our ground segment team

You can think of our satellites as essentially Linux computers 500km away travelling at 8km/s that we can only talk to for a few minutes per day. In that time we download telemetry, verify satellite health, respond to anomalies, plan the next orbit's activities and retrieve payload data such as images.

These constraints create unique and exciting engineering challenges. The Ground Segment team builds and runs software to test and operate satellites with high levels of automation. The operational infrastructure we provide is critical to the success of our missions, and the tools we build on top make everyone in the company more productive. We're scaling fast to support upcoming missions.

Our operations platform runs Go and Python microservices on Kubernetes, backed by PostgreSQL, with a React/TypeScript frontend. We favor proven technologies so we can focus on the problems that actually matter: reliably operating a growing constellation at scale.

What You'll Be Doing

  • Designing and owning backend services and APIs used in satellite and mission operations

  • Leading technical design discussions and guiding implementation approaches across the team

  • Talking with system engineers, spacecraft operators and avionics developers to understand their needs and defining the product roadmap

  • Writing high-quality, maintainable and well-tested code and setting standards through peer review

  • Monitoring backend services, troubleshooting issues and leading incident resolution

  • Participating in sprint planning, stand-ups, retrospectives and technical reviews

What You’ll Bring

  • Strong programming capability in Go and Python (or comparable backend languages)

  • Experience leading complex software projects and mentoring other engineers

  • Confidence debugging issues in complex systems

  • Familiarity with computer networking and software performance principles

  • Knowledge of automated testing practices and CI/CD pipelines

  • Understanding of monitoring, logging and observability concepts

  • Fluency in English and strong communication skills

For these roles you can be based in any of our locations:

  • Harwell, UK

  • Barcelona, Spain

  • Porto, Portugal

  • Athens, Greece

  • Tenerife, Canary Islands

To apply, you must have the legal right to work in your chosen location.

Please submit your application in English

Why Open Cosmos?

  • Work at the cutting edge of space technology with customers around the globe.

  • A mission-driven company making space accessible to help solve real-world challenges.

  • A diverse, ambitious, and supportive team.

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