Senior Software Engineer, Backend

At Vast our mission is to contribute to a future where billions of people are living and thriving in space. Vast is developing next-generation space stations to ensure a continuous human presence in space for America and its allies enabling advanced microgravity research and manufacturing and unlocking a new space economy for government corporate and private customers. Using an incremental hardware-rich and low-cost approach Vast is rapidly developing its multi-module Haven Station. Haven Demos 2025 success made Vast the only operational commercial space station company to fly and operate its own spacecraft. Next Haven-1 is expected to become the worlds first commercial space station when it launches followed by additional Haven modules to enable permanent human presence by 2030. Our team is all-in committed to executing our mission safely and on time. If you want to work with the most talented people on Earth furthering space exploration for humanity come join us.

Vast is looking for a Senior Software Engineer Backend reporting to the Senior Manager Software Engineering to support the development of the systems that will be required for the design and build of artificial-gravity human-rated space stations.

This will be a full-timeexempt position located in ourLong Beachlocation.

Responsibilities:

• Design build and maintain scalable backend services tools and pipelines supporting mission-critical security systems.
• Collaborate with cross-functional engineering teams to design and implement secure high-performance services and APIs.
• Develop and maintain backend infrastructure for authentication authorization and secure data handling.
• Establish and promote best practices for backend architecture security and code quality at scale.
• Build systems that are reliable observable and capable of supporting a rapidly growing codebase and engineering team.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelors degree in Computer Science Engineering or related field.
• 6 years of backend software engineering experience with exposure to security-focused systems (e.g. IAM API security certificate management).
• Strong experience building and operating backend services in cloud environments.
• Proficiency in at least one modern programming language (Python Go Rust C etc.).
• Solid understanding of distributed systems API design and backend architecture.
• Experience working in Linux environments including command line and scripting.

Preferred Skills & Experience:

• Experience solving ambiguous complex backend problems in fast-paced environments.
• Familiarity with DevOps practices and tools (Docker Kubernetes).
• Experience designing and scaling APIs and microservices.
• Background in one or more security domains (e.g. cryptography network security infrastructure security).
• Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate across teams.
• Ownership mindset with a bias toward action and continuous improvement.

Additional Requirements:

• Ability to travel up to 10% of the time.
• Willingness to work overtime or weekends to support critical mission milestones.
• Ability to lift up to 25lbs unassisted.
• Specific certifications as appropriate.

Pay Range:

• Senior Software Engineer Enterprise Applications: $159000 - $226000
• Staff Software Engineer Enterprise Applications: $188600 - $267000

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY