Lead Software Engineer

About the Team: 

The Vehicle Software team develops the safety-critical software that runs on Terran R. The work spans a distributed, real-time control system operating under extreme conditions like Mach 5 atmospheric flight, with a deployment pace that allows you to see your code run on rocket engines daily. The team is building new system architecture from the ground up and just as importantly, testing, releasing, and deploying it. You don’t need an aerospace background: what matters is experience with high-reliability software for complex systems. This is a rare opportunity to shape the foundation of Terran R’s software stack while directly influencing performance, reliability, and flight success.

About the Role:

As the Lead Engineer for our vehicle configuration system, you will be the primary architect and steward of the data that defines our flight hardware. You will lead a high-impact team to aggregate disparate data streams from across the company into a single, high-integrity relational source of truth. Your work ensures that every department—from propulsion to avionics—is operating from the same validated configuration.

What You’ll Do:

• Work with engineering and operations teams across the company to understand the structure of their configuration data and how it integrates into the vehicle. You will become a subject matter expert in how manufacturing, propulsion, avionics, GNC, and networking data enables Terran R to fly
• Build and optimize pipelines to ingest, clean, and normalize complex configuration data from multiple departmental silos
• Lead the development of high-performance REST APIs using Python and FastAPI to expose this data to the rest of the organization
• Guide the development of lightweight web interfaces and Jamstack frontends that allow non-technical stakeholders to explore and audit data
• Partner with test and systems engineering teams to rapidly generate updated configurations for validation and deployment. Change is the only constant; configurations will evolve right up to the hours before launch

About You:

• 6+ years of professional software development experience with a mastery of Python and modern asynchronous frameworks like FastAPI, utilizing Pydantic or JSON Schema for rigorous data modeling
• Expertise in relational database design, including a proven ability to manage complex schemas and model intricate dependencies without sacrificing performance
• A track record of building mission-critical RESTful APIs that serve as a high-integrity, scalable source of truth for diverse consumers
• 1+ years of experience leading or mentoring engineering teams, including managing sprints and conducting high-standard design and code reviews
• Experience thriving in high-velocity environments where data changes rapidly, maintaining composure and data integrity even under the pressure of tight mission deadlines

Nice to haves but not required:  

• Domain expertise in aerospace or complex manufacturing, particularly working with PLM systems or configuration management for complex electromechanical systems (e.g., automotive, defense, or industrial automation)
• Experience with modern full-stack web development, specifically using Jamstack architectures to build responsive internal data exploration tools
• Familiarity with modern DevOps practices, including Docker, Kubernetes, and CI/CD, to ensure configuration systems remain highly available during critical launch windows
• Strong systems engineering aptitude, with the ability to translate physical hardware constraints into logical, rigorous data models
• A demonstrated ability to act as a cross-functional "bridge," translating the specific technical jargon of various engineering silos into a unified, functional system