Backend Software Engineer (Ground Segment)

Aim high, go beyond!

At Open Cosmos we are solving the world's biggest challenges fro space, providing businesses, governments and researchers access to more readily available information than ever before - ready for the challenge? Then read on

Working in our Chief Technology Office (CTO)

The CTO division is where Open Cosmos technology comes to life. Covering engineering, product development, and technical innovation, the team designs, builds, and operates the satellites, systems, and platforms that make our missions possible. It's a highly collaborative environment where ideas become real hardware, software, and data solutions that deliver impact from space.

Our Ground Segment team builds and runs the software that powers Open Cosmos missions. This role develops, deploys and maintains backend services that sit at the heart of mission operations. You'll contribute to system design, deliver reliable and scalable components, and ensure high standards of performance and code quality.

Working closely with satellite operators, product stakeholders and engineering teams, you'll build robust backend systems that meet the real-world demands and constraints of space missions.

What You'll Be Doing

• Implementing and maintaining backend services and APIs used in satellite and mission operations
• Contributing to technical design discussions and supporting the evolution of backend architecture
• Translating operational and product requirements into reliable, production-ready software components
• Writing clean, maintainable and well-tested code aligned with engineering standards
• Supporting the development and operation of microservices-based systems
• Deploying and running services using containerisation and orchestration technologies
• Designing solutions that consider space-specific constraints such as latency, intermittent connectivity and fault tolerance
• Monitoring backend services, troubleshooting issues and contributing to incident resolution
• Supporting CI/CD pipelines and automated testing practices
• Participating in sprint planning, stand-ups, retrospectives and technical reviews

What You'll Bring

• Strong programming capability in Go (Golang) and Python (or comparable backend languages)
• Ability to build and maintain backend services and APIs that are reliable, testable and maintainable
• Solid understanding of containerisation with Docker and running services on Kubernetes
• Working knowledge of PostgreSQL including schema design, querying and performance considerations
• Familiarity with messaging and asynchronous communication patterns (e.g. RabbitMQ)
• Understanding of API design using REST and/or gRPC
• Knowledge of automated testing practices and CI/CD pipelines
• Awareness of monitoring, logging and observability concepts
• Confidence debugging issues in distributed systems using a structured approach

For this role you can be based in any of our locations:

• Harwell, UK
• Barcelona, Spain
• Porto, Portugal
• Athens, Greece

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.