Principal Application Software Engineer New Los Angeles, CA

As a Principal Application Software Engineer on our Enterprise Team, you will design and build mission-critical software that connects engineering, manufacturing, and operations. Your work will directly enable accelerated satellite design, rapid production, and reliable mission execution. You'll collaborate closely with teams throughout K2 Space and deliver systems that improve efficiency, scale operations, and support ambitious missions., * Develop highly reliable software solutions used across K2 Space - from factory floors to mission control.

• Create and evolve applications that improve how we design, build, and operate our spacecraft.
• Partner closely with engineers, business partners, and leaders across disciplines to understand their challenges and design efficient solutions.
• Develop prototypes test concept and progress to full fledge software products.
• Own full-lifecycle product development from inception to happy customers.
• Lead architecture reviews, design discussions, and code reviews with your unique perspective.
• Lead software architecture design, deployment strategy, coding standards, and quality processes.
• Evaluate and make decisions regarding engineering options while balancing tradeoffs.
• Advocate, defend and convert other engineering leaders to your own solutions.
• Use data to drive prioritization of work and design of solutions to create the largest positive impact.
• Actively contribute to building a culture of transparency, empathy, integrity, and engineering excellence.
• Actively mentoring other staff members and help team members build good culture and engineering practices., A disability is a condition that substantially limits one or more of your major life activities. If you have or have ever had such a condition, you are a person with a disability. Disabilities include, but are not limited to:
• Alcohol or other substance use disorder (not currently using drugs illegally)
• Autoimmune disorder, for example, lupus, fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV/AIDS
• Blind or low vision
• Cancer (past or present)
• Cardiovascular or heart disease
• Celiac disease
• Cerebral palsy
• Deaf or serious difficulty hearing
• Diabetes
• Disfigurement, for example, disfigurement caused by burns, wounds, accidents, or congenital disorders
• Epilepsy or other seizure disorder
• Gastrointestinal disorders, for example, Crohn's Disease, irritable bowel syndrome
• Intellectual or developmental disability
• Mental health conditions, for example, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD
• Missing limbs or partially missing limbs
• Mobility impairment, benefiting from the use of a wheelchair, scooter, walker, leg brace(s) and/or other supports
• Nervous system condition, for example, migraine headaches, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis (MS)
• Neurodivergence, for example, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder, dyslexia, dyspraxia, other learning disabilities
• Partial or complete paralysis (any cause)
• Pulmonary or respiratory conditions, for example, tuberculosis, asthma, emphysema
• Short stature (dwarfism)
• Traumatic brain injury

With multiple launches planned through 2026 and 2027, we're Building Bigger to develop the solar system and become a Kardashev Type II (K2) civilization. If you are a motivated individual who thrives in a fast-paced environment and you're excited about contributing to the success of a groundbreaking Series C space startup, we'd love for you to apply., * Bachelor's degree in computer science, information technology, mathematics or a STEM discipline or 15+ years of professional experience in software engineering.

• 10+ years of experience in full stack development, platform engineering, or API development.
• 5+ years of experience with AWS (or Azure, GCP)
• 5+ years of in-depth working experience with CI/CD such as GH Actions, Jenkins, Gitlab CI/CD.
• Working experience with Docker.
• In-depth working experience with Kubernetes (prefer AWS EKS).
• Expert working experience with one or more of the following static typed programming languages such as C#, Go, Java, C+, TypeScript.
• 5+ years of experience with structured database such as PostgreSQL, SQL Server, Snowflake or similar technologies
• Working experience with unstructured database such as NoSQL, Amazon DynamoDB, MongoDB or similar.
• Strong working experience with REST API or gRPC.
• Strong working experience with binary management platforms such as JFrog Artifactory, AWS CodeArtifact or similar technologies.
• Experience with infrastructure orchestration and management tools (Terraform, Ansible, Puppet).

Nice to Have

• Experience with Next.js, React, Angular, or similar frameworks.
• Working experience with testing tool such as Cucumber and Cypress.
• Experience designing scalable, high-performance software systems.
• Knowledge of build systems and package management tools (eg, Make, Gradle, npm, pip).
• Familiarity with data streaming technologies like Apache Kafka, RabbitMQ, or similar.

• Base salary range for this role is $190,000 - $230,000 + equity in the company
• Salary will be based on several factors including, but not limited to: knowledge and skills, education, and experience level
• Comprehensive benefits package including paid time off, medical/dental/vision/coverage, life insurance, paid parental leave, and many other perks

K2 is building the largest and highest-power satellites ever flown, unlocking performance levels previously out of reach across every orbit.Backed by $450M from leading investors including Altimeter Capital, Redpoint Ventures, T. Rowe Price, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Alpine Space Ventures, and others - with an additional $500M in signed contracts across commercial and US government customers - we're mass-producing the highest-power satellite platforms ever built for missions from LEO to deep space. The rise of heavy-lift launch vehicles is shifting the industry from an era of mass constraint to one of mass abundance, and we believe this new era demands a fundamentally different class of spacecraft. Engineered to survive the harshest radiation environments and to fully capitalize on today's and tomorrow's massive rockets, K2 satellites deliver unmatched capability at constellation scale and across multiple orbits., If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows: A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability. A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service. An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense. An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.