Space Jobs for Software Engineers

Listed here: Amazon Leo roles. See every employer

Pay by specialty

Every specialty gets its typical band from its own open roles, computed by the same method as the rest of the site (the 25th percentile of what roles pay (the middle of each posted range, as a year's pay: an hourly rate counts at 2,080 hours, 40 a week for 52 weeks) to the 90th-percentile posted top). A specialty is listed once three or more distinct rates have been posted.

What the roles ask for

Drawn from the requirement lines of 308 out of 1,989 open roles for software engineers, the same lines each role's pop-up quotes from its posting. Each role is counted once, at the lowest degree it will accept.

• Name years of experience219
• Require programming (Python, C++, MATLAB and similar)127
• Name a security clearance83
• Name u.S. person status (ITAR or EAR)26
• Set a residency or work-authorization condition23
• Ask for a certification4
• Ask for a professional license2

Where a posting states years of experience, the median ask is 5 years.

Who hires software engineers in the space industry

Employer	Open roles	Pay stated
Muon Space	37	$83.2k–$298k/yr
Array Labs	6	$150k–$300k/yr
Anduril	27	$129k–$292k/yr
Hubble Network	1	$153k–$250k/yr
Outpost	1	$275k–$325k/yr
Umbra	8	$135k–$235k/yr
Cowboy Space	9	$93.6k–$250k/yr
Astrolab	1	$190k–$220k/yr
Amazon Leo	129	$80.1k–$350k/yr
Portal Space Systems	1	$160k–$205k/yr
Johns Hopkins APL	2	$47k–$245k/yr
True Anomaly	41	$70k–$340k/yr
Turion Space	1	$175k–$225k/yr
E-Space	14	$120k–$225k/yr
LeoLabs	4	$171k–$195k/yr
Stoke Space	8	$58.2k–$347k/yr
Inversion Space	14	$101k–$236k/yr
BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems	11	$79.4k–$254k/yr
Kymeta	1	$140k–$190k/yr
K2 Space	23	$62.4k–$240k/yr
General Galactic	2	$140k–$250k/yr
Apex	8	$125k–$250k/yr
Xona Space Systems	9	$132k–$274k/yr
Loft Federal	4	$100k–$185k/yr
Quindar	7	$120k–$190k/yr
Varda Space Industries	6	$169k–$216k/yr
Loft Orbital	25	$140k–$275k/yr
Viasat	54	$43.5k–$265k/yr
Blue Origin	141	$55.3k–$381k/yr
Skylo	2	Not stated
Astra	2	$140k–$240k/yr
Impulse Space	17	$66.6k–$300k/yr
Capella Space	1	$146k–$191k/yr
KBR	18	$100k–$214k/yr
Quantum Space	4	$100k–$200k/yr
Epsilon3	1	$120k–$180k/yr
Planet	19	$136k–$226k/yr
BlackSky	6	$140k–$205k/yr
Slingshot Aerospace	3	$100k–$265k/yr
Sophia Space	1	$125k–$191k/yr
Millennium Space Systems	3	$128k–$280k/yr
CesiumAstro	31	$113k–$225k/yr
Reflect Orbital	3	$56.2k–$64.5k/yr
Voyager Technologies	9	$48.9k–$210k/yr
Spire Global	11	$90k–$203k/yr
Northwood Space	8	$120k–$224k/yr
GITAI	1	$58.2k–$83.2k/yr
Booz Allen Hamilton	11	$69.3k–$225k/yr
Boeing	27	$91.8k–$286k/yr
Parsons	3	$74.8k–$181k/yr
Sierra Space	14	$60.9k–$248k/yr
Relativity Space	22	$102k–$308k/yr
Vast	11	$123k–$268k/yr
Firefly Aerospace	6	Not stated
The Aerospace Corporation	35	Not stated
ICEYE	25	Not stated
Thales Alenia Space	23	Not stated
OHB	22	Not stated
ArianeGroup	15	Not stated
Airbus Defence and Space	14	Not stated
Axiom Space	12	Not stated
The Exploration Company	12	Not stated
German Aerospace Center (DLR)	10	Not stated
Isar Aerospace	9	Not stated
Exotrail	7	Not stated
Star Catcher	7	Not stated
Constellr	6	Not stated
CNES (French space agency)	5	Not stated
Eutelsat	5	Not stated
MaiaSpace	5	Not stated
Open Cosmos	5	Not stated
Astroscale	4	Not stated
Elveo Mobile	4	Not stated
Kepler Communications	4	Not stated
Reflex Aerospace	4	Not stated
Telespazio	4	Not stated
Foundational	3	Not stated
Leaf Space	3	Not stated
Telesat	3	Not stated
ClearSpace	2	Not stated
Dawn Aerospace	2	Not stated
Satellogic	2	Not stated
Venus Aerospace	2	Not stated
European Space Agency (ESA)	1	Not stated
NewOrbit Space	1	Not stated
Rocket Factory Augsburg	1	Not stated
Sidus Space	1	Not stated
Spaceium	1	Not stated
Synspective	1	Not stated
Starfish Space	3	$100k–$180k/yr
Katalyst Space Technologies	4	$105k–$180k/yr
SES	6	$75k–$110k/yr
Intuitive Machines	7	Not stated
RTX	18	$62.9k–$277k/yr
SpaceX	334	$62.4k–$355k/yr
ispace	10	$101k–$189k/yr
Redwire	8	$93k–$190k/yr
Rendezvous Robotics	3	$85k–$115k/yr
L3Harris	31	$74.5k–$218k/yr
AST SpaceMobile	19	Not stated
Lockheed Martin	211	$38.1k–$381k/yr
Vantor	33	$86k–$215k/yr
General Dynamics Mission Systems	2	$138k–$155k/yr
Leidos	5	$108k–$278k/yr
Terran Orbital	2	$125k–$190k/yr
AeroVironment (AV)	3	$101k–$224k/yr
United Launch Alliance	16	$48k–$275k/yr
Northrop Grumman	84	$50.4k–$289k/yr
Virgin Galactic	3	$118k–$202k/yr
Iridium	4	$64.5k–$165k/yr
Rocket Lab	32	$56.2k–$300k/yr
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)	4	$127k–$222k/yr
CACI	17	$58k–$290k/yr
Amentum	5	$70k–$85k/yr
Ursa Major	4	$110k–$224k/yr
Lunar Outpost	6	$49.9k/yr
Teledyne	1	Not stated
Moog	2	$75k–$175k/yr
Astranis	21	$60.3k–$280k/yr
AstroForge	1	$140k–$229k/yr
Benchmark Space Systems	1	$47.8k–$54.1k/yr

Sorted by the expected value of an application (acceptance odds times posted pay). A referral agreement, if an employer has one, can raise it in this order but never changes the salary it offers.

Software Engineer salary by employer

What each employer's own postings pay software engineers, by level and by site, with every role and its posted pay.

• SpaceX Software Engineer salarymedian $163k/yr, 334 open roles
• Lockheed Martin Software Engineer salarymedian $158k/yr, 211 open roles
• Blue Origin Software Engineer salarymedian $198k/yr, 141 open roles
• Amazon Leo Software Engineer salarymedian $169k/yr, 129 open roles
• Northrop Grumman Software Engineer salarymedian $136k/yr, 84 open roles
• Viasat Software Engineer salarymedian $181k/yr, 54 open roles
• True Anomaly Software Engineer salarymedian $198k/yr, 41 open roles
• Muon Space Software Engineer salarymedian $218k/yr, 37 open roles
• Vantor Software Engineer salarymedian $149k/yr, 33 open roles
• Rocket Lab Software Engineer salarymedian $161k/yr, 32 open roles
• CesiumAstro Software Engineer salarymedian $147k/yr, 31 open roles
• L3Harris Software Engineer salarymedian $139k/yr, 31 open roles
• Anduril Software Engineer salarymedian $195k/yr, 27 open roles
• Boeing Software Engineer salarymedian $149k/yr, 27 open roles
• Loft Orbital Software Engineer salarymedian $173k/yr, 25 open roles
• K2 Space Software Engineer salarymedian $178k/yr, 23 open roles
• Relativity Space Software Engineer salarymedian $192k/yr, 22 open roles
• Astranis Software Engineer salarymedian $153k/yr, 21 open roles
• KBR Software Engineer salarymedian $143k/yr, 18 open roles
• RTX Software Engineer salarymedian $126k/yr, 18 open roles
• CACI Software Engineer salarymedian $116k/yr, 17 open roles
• Impulse Space Software Engineer salarymedian $190k/yr, 17 open roles
• United Launch Alliance Software Engineer salarymedian $144k/yr, 16 open roles
• E-Space Software Engineer salarymedian $178k/yr, 14 open roles
• Inversion Space Software Engineer salarymedian $170k/yr, 14 open roles
• Sierra Space Software Engineer salarymedian $145k/yr, 14 open roles
• BAE Systems Space & Mission Systems Software Engineer salarymedian $159k/yr, 11 open roles
• Booz Allen Hamilton Software Engineer salarymedian $142k/yr, 11 open roles
• Vast Software Engineer salarymedian $201k/yr, 11 open roles

How each employer checks you

For every employer currently hiring software engineers: its process as its own hiring guide describes it, each line with its source. The complete steps sit on that employer's page. Sorted by the expected value of an application (acceptance odds times posted pay). A referral agreement, if an employer has one, can raise it in this order but never changes the salary it offers.

Amazon Leo129 open

Assessment

Amazon's interview loop. How to apply

Interview

Interview

Blue Origin141 open

Assessment

No general test published. How to apply

Interview

None published

Booz Allen Hamilton11 open

Assessment

Booz Allen's technical assessment and interviews. How to apply

Interview

Interview

Thales Alenia Space23 open

Assessment

Thales interviews. How to apply

Interview

Interview

Airbus Defence and Space14 open

Assessment

Airbus interviews and role tests. How to apply

Interview

Interview

European Space Agency (ESA)1 open

Assessment

ESA's pre-screening and panel interview. How to apply

Interview

Interview

Credentials

You complete a basic medical screening for the ESA Medical Officer and a basic background screening run by an external party; in a second stage ESA contacts your referees and verifies your diploma. Source

Lockheed Martin211 open

Assessment

Lockheed Martin's interviews. How to apply

Interview

Interview

Northrop Grumman84 open

Assessment

The recruiter screening and team interviews. How to apply

Interview

Interview

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)4 open

Assessment

No general test published. How to apply

Interview

None published

Where these roles are posted

The US states with the most open roles for software engineers, and the roles posted for a single country. A place name leads to its own page, and a country's count lists the matching roles.

What our research measures about software & it work

Read from the open postings on 2026-10-30 by our space industry research, rebuilt every day. Every figure opens the row of the report it comes from.

• Who is hiring1,813 open roles (11.4% of the space roles we read) at 109 employers, 634 of them posted in the last 30 days.
• Where the jobs are2.2% of these roles are remote; the rest are on-site or hybrid.
• Who can apply62.9% of the postings are open only to US persons or US citizens, and 40.7% name a security clearance.
• Skills and toolsThe skills its postings name most: Python (52%), Linux (33%) and AWS, Azure or Google Cloud (31%).
• Degrees and experience3.2% of the postings take a high school diploma or an associate's degree, 16.9% name a master's or PhD, and they ask for a median of 4 years of experience at the least.
• Pay transparency66.4% of the postings state their pay, at a median $162,000 a year.
• Internships and entry level131 open roles are for someone starting out (7.2% of its open roles).
• Shifts, weekends and travel19.4% of the postings ask for weekend work, 21.6% for overtime or extended hours, and 0.4% name an evening, night or rotating shift.
• What applications askThe application forms for this work ask your citizenship or U.S. person status (82.0% of them), about a security clearance (54.2% of them), your GPA (37.1% of them), SAT, ACT or GRE scores (36.8% of them), your salary expectations (24.6% of them) and whether you have worked or interviewed at the company before (49.0% of them).

What our research measures about flight software work

Read from the open postings on 2026-10-30 by our space industry research, rebuilt every day. Every figure opens the row of the report it comes from.

• Who is hiring829 open roles (5.2% of the space roles we read) at 105 employers, 260 of them posted in the last 30 days.
• Where the jobs are1.4% of these roles are remote; the rest are on-site or hybrid.
• Who can apply66.1% of the postings are open only to US persons or US citizens, and 33.1% name a security clearance.
• Skills and toolsThe skills its postings name most: C or C++ (74%), Python (61%) and Linux (37%).
• Degrees and experience0.2% of the postings take a high school diploma or an associate's degree, 38.7% name a master's or PhD, and they ask for a median of 5 years of experience at the least.
• Pay transparency64.2% of the postings state their pay, at a median $170,000 a year.
• Internships and entry level91 open roles are for someone starting out (11.0% of its open roles).
• Shifts, weekends and travel10.1% of the postings ask for weekend work, 14.9% for overtime or extended hours, and 0.2% name an evening, night or rotating shift.
• What applications askThe application forms for this work ask your citizenship or U.S. person status (79.6% of them), about a security clearance (38.6% of them), your GPA (17.2% of them), SAT, ACT or GRE scores (15.9% of them), your salary expectations (24.8% of them) and whether you have worked or interviewed at the company before (29.5% of them).