Project Lead Engineer - Ground Software

Overview

D-Orbit is pioneering space logistics and transportation. We are seeking a highly skilled Project Lead Engineer (PLE) to drive the end-to-end development of EOS, our Mission Control Software. The successful candidate will lead a multidisciplinary software team, oversee architectural and implementation decisions, ensure security-by-design across all components, and guide the system from concept to production.

Responsibilities

• Technical Leadership & Project Ownership
• Lead the development, ensuring alignment with multiple missions requirements
• Drive architectural decisions applying Domain-Driven Design (DDD)
• Promote Security by Design practices
• Collaborate with infrastructure and DevOps teams to ensure robust, scalable, and observable deployment environments (CI/CD, monitoring, logging, resilience patterns)
• Own backlog prioritization, and delivery milestones
• Lead, mentor, and support a cross-functional development team
• Manage Agile processes (Scrum), as defined by the Ground Software Engineering Group, ensuring predictable delivery and transparent communication of progress and risks
• Guide the team in consistently applying engineering best practices and defined processes including code reviews, design reviews, TDD/automated testing, and documentation

Hands-On Engineering

• Contribute to the design, development, and maintenance of backend and frontend services and cloud and on-premise solutions
• Define and implement APIs (REST, gRPC), messaging workflows; ensure scalability, security, and mission-critical performance

Qualifications

• Proven ability to design large-scale, mission-critical software systems using Domain-Driven Design, modular architectures, and well-defined domain boundaries
• Solid understanding and application of Security by Design, including identity/access management, secure communication patterns, and data protection
• Strong ability to translate mission needs into scalable, fault-tolerant system architectures

Technical Skills — Infrastructure & DevOps

• Hands-on experience with Kubernetes (K8s), including designing deployments, managing microservices, configuring networking, and resilience patterns
• Deep understanding of containerization (Docker) and container-native software development
• Knowledge of CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, artifact management, and release strategies
• Hands-on experience with cloud environments (AWS preferred)

Technical Skills — Backend Development

• Expert proficiency in Python, including FastAPI
• Experience building REST and gRPC APIs
• Strong experience with SQL (PostgreSQL) and NoSQL design and optimization
• Experience implementing event-driven architectures
• Experience with Test-Driven Development (TDD)

Technical Skills — Frontend Development

• Familiarity with modern frontend frameworks (React, Vue, Angular or equivalent)
• Understanding of frontend architecture, state management, API integration, and UI/UX implications for mission-control workflows
• Ability to collaborate with frontend engineers to ensure consistency, performance, and seamless integration with backend services

Leadership & Process

• Experience leading development teams (technical lead, team lead, or project lead)
• Strong experience managing Agile processes (Scrum/Kanban), planning sprints, reviewing deliverables, and coordinating cross-team work
• Proven ability to translate high-level requirements into actionable engineering work packages
• Experience mentoring engineers, conducting code/design reviews, and establishing engineering best practices
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills — capable of aligning product, systems engineering, and development teams
• Ability to drive the project from specification to production with accountability on quality, timelines, and maintainability