Senior Software Engineer - Data Engineering

Slingshot Aerospace is at the forefront of satellite observation and orbital determination technologies, using the latest in ground-based optical telescopes and advanced AI-powered processing algorithms. Satellite data is the lifeblood of the company, and as such, the Data Engineering team plays a critical role in ensuring its success, by managing and processing the observational data with as little latency and as high reliability as possible.

We are seeking an accomplished Software Engineer to join our team of dedicated data engineers and help Slingshot accelerate the security, safety, and sustainability of space. In this role, you’ll collaborate with peers to design, lead, and optimize large-scale data pipelines and infrastructure that power real-time optical tracking of satellites. You’ll have the opportunity to both contribute as a hands-on engineer and influence technical direction, ensuring our systems operate with high performance, scalability, and reliability.

What You’ll Do:

As a Senior Software Engineer on the Data Engineering team, you’ll focus on the Global Sensor Network (GSN) Pipeline, helping to scale and modernize our data infrastructure. You will:

Design, build, and maintain high-performance ETL pipelines using Python, MongoDB, and AWS EKS, supporting the ingestion and processing of 20–30GB of satellite data daily.

• Develop and maintain scalable APIs and services for data ingestion, transformation, and export to customers.

• Optimize data workflows to improve throughput, latency, and system uptime, ensuring reliable data delivery at scale.

• Build and maintain monitoring, alerting, and performance dashboards using Datadog for proactive system health tracking and fault resolution.

• Collaborate with engineering, product, and operations teams to deliver mission-critical data systems that meet customer needs.

• Contribute to the architecture, automation, and observability of cloud-native systems, following industry best practices.

• Support the strategic transition of workloads to Databricks and PostgreSQL, helping modernize and scale our data platform.

• Promote coding standards, participate in technical planning, and help drive continuous improvement across the engineering organization.

• Engage with internal stakeholders and external customers to ensure successful outcomes and alignment with business goals.

Prerequisites:

• Must be able to work remotely with sufficient internet bandwidth to support video conferencing and development activities.

Minimum Requirements:

• 5+ years of experience in software or data engineering

• Proficiency in Python and experience building high-performance data processing systems

• Strong experience with MongoDB; familiarity with PostgreSQL and Databricks

• Solid understanding of ETL pipelines, data transformation, and large-scale data management

• Experience developing in Linux environments, including containerized deployments using Docker and Kubernetes in AWS

• Experience with source control systems (e.g., Git) and CI/CD workflows

• Experience building and debugging distributed data pipelines using Databricks, Apache Spark, or similar platforms

• Familiarity with MongoDB change streams and streaming frameworks like RabbitMQ or Kafka

• Strong written communication skills and ability to produce clear technical documentation

• Self-starter with the ability to work independently and collaboratively in a fast-paced, remote environment

• Ability to travel up to 10% of the time

Preferred Skills:

• Experience with C++ is a plus

• Experience working in Data Delivery Projects and customer-facing data delivery workflows

• Strong debugging skills and ability to optimize performance, throughput, and cost

• Experience with observability tools such as Datadog for monitoring and alerting

• Background working in cloud-native environments and deploying to AWS EKS

• Prior experience in remote-first teams or startup environments

Location: Remote

Classification: Full-Time Exempt (Computer Employee Exemption)

Salary Range: $127,000 - $212,000

US-based Candidates: we are currently only able to hire residents of the following U.S. states: AZ, CA, CO, DC, FL, GA, HI, IL, IN, KS, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NV, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OR, RI, TN, TX, UT, VT, VA, WA, WV, and WI. We are unable to consider candidates residing in other U.S. states at this time.

Internationally-based Candidates: we are currently only able to hire residents of the following locations: United Kingdom. We are unable to consider candidates residing in other countries at this time.

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion are key to our success. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and our employees are people with different strengths, experiences, and backgrounds, who share a passion for creating a safer, more connected world. Diversity not only includes race and gender identity, but also national origin, citizenship, sex, color, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or any other protected characteristic that is part of one’s identity. All of our employees’ points of view are key to our success, and we embrace individuality.