Loft Orbital
Senior Earth Observation Engineer
$130K–$190K
Golden, CO · Hybrid · Senior · Full-time · Posted Aug 7, 2026
- Experience
- 5 or more years in space systems engineering on Earth observation missions; at least one year coding in Python.
About the job
Leads optical payload performance and Earth observation image quality, from mission requirements and payload testing through calibration, image processing, and imagery delivery.
What you'll do
- Derive mission and payload requirements with customers and flow them down to software and hardware teams and suppliers.
- Drive payload development and testing, and develop on-ground and in-orbit testing, calibration, and data-processing strategies.
- Support integration, launch, and commissioning, and contribute to the Earth observation roadmap and customer business development.
What they ask for
- 5 or more years of demonstrated experience as a space systems engineer on earth observation missions.
- Familiarity with image quality metrics and imagery calibration, including geometric, radiometric, and spectral aspects.
- Good experience in optical payloads.
- At least one year of Python coding experience.
Nice to have
- Knowledge of deep learning and artificial neural networks.
- Experience in optics and detector technologies, or optical ground support equipment.
Pay
USD 130,000–190,000 (per-year-salary) — base salary
Tools
Python
AI focus
Build processing and image-quality capabilities to support vision-based Earth observation; deep learning and artificial neural networks are nice-to-haves.
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative