Principal Software Engineer - Data Infrastructure

Array Labs builds advanced radar systems to help humanity understand and respond to changes across the physical world.    We’re launching a coordinated fleet of radar satellites to create a high-resolution 3D map of the Earth – updated in real time – enabling faster, smarter decision-making for government and commercial organizations supporting disaster response, infrastructure resilience, and mission-critical geopolitical intelligence.   We design and build our satellites end-to-end, producing the world’s most advanced earth observation satellites. Our fleet will deliver unprecedented levels of accuracy, coverage, and responsiveness to power critical insights precisely where they’re needed most.   About the Job As Principal Software Engineer for data infrastructure, you will play a crucial role in designing and implementing the systems that process, analyze, and serve our satellite constellation’s data to end-users. You will have the opportunity to shape highly reliable backend infrastructure that handles petabytes of data annually. The position will work closely with frontend engineers, scientists, satellite systems engineers, and the product team.   As part of our quickly growing engineering team, you will play a critical role in the design of the world’s most advanced radar satellite constellation—one that will significantly improve humanity’s ability to rapidly and comprehensively understand our changing planet.

Responsibilities:

• Design and implement scalable distributed systems for processing and analyzing massive datasets from our satellite constellation.
• Develop and optimize database schemas and storage solutions for managing petabyte-scale 3D geospatial data.
• Architect and maintain high-performance APIs and services for efficient geospatial data streaming, querying, and analysis.
• Lead the design and implementation of mechanisms for handling data ingestion, processing, and delivery pipelines.
• Implement robust monitoring, logging, and operational systems to ensure reliability and performance of backend services.
• Work with cross-functional teams to define technical requirements, architect solutions, and drive the backend roadmap in alignment with company goals.

Qualifications:

• 6+ years of backend software engineering experience, including 4+ years building distributed systems and scalable APIs.
• Strong proficiency in backend languages (e.g., Python, C++, Java), experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure) and containerization technologies (e.g. Docker, Kubernetes).
• Deep understanding of distributed systems and cloud-native development practices.
• Experience with high-performance computing and optimization of large-scale data processing pipelines.
• Excellent communicator, with the ability to make high-quality technical decisions in a startup environment.

Preferred Skills and Experience:

• Experience building geospatial databases, mapping technologies, and 3D visualizations, including relevant front-end techniques.
• Familiarity with geospatial, remote sensing, 3D data, and/or digital signal processing techniques (e.g. SAR and optical satellite imagery, OpenStreetMap, LiDAR point clouds).

ITAR Requirements:

• To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.
 

Equal Opportunity Employer:

• Array Labs is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Employment decisions are made on the basis of merit, competence, and job qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by gender, color, race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual orientation, religion, age, gender identity, veteran status, disability status, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

Interview Process We will conduct interviews via Google Meet; the typical process takes around 2-4 weeks to complete from start to finish.   Hiring and Compensation Strategy Our hiring and compensation strategy is simple:   1) find uncommonly good people  2) pay them uncommonly well     You can anticipate competitive pay, with high flexibility between salary and equity-based compensation.   Why Join Array Labs? Array Labs is launching a constellation of satellites to create the first high-resolution, real-time, three-dimensional model of Earth. Our next-generation satellite technology wil