Contract Principal Rf Engineer Jobs in Washington, DC

Spire Global is a space-to-cloud analytics company that owns and operates the largest multi-purpose constellation of satellites. We are hiring a Software Engineer to join our US-focused RFGL (Radio Frequency Geolocation) and Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) product team.

This role is not the algorithmic or scientific core of our geolocation capability (that sits with our Principal RF Engineer and research team). Instead, you will own the operational side: deploying and maintaining production RFGL/SIGINT software systems on AWS, handling data pipelines and integrations (internal + customer-facing), building monitoring tooling and automation, supporting satellite tasking workflows, and troubleshooting/fixing issues across payloads, ground systems, and infrastructure to drive RFGL product success for commercial, government, and defense customers.

ITAR restrictions apply to the work performed on this team. You will work under the direct supervision and mentorship of a senior software engineer on a small, high-impact team. This is an early-to-mid-career hands-on role ideal for someone who thrives in iterative, production-focused environments and wants to contribute meaningfully to mission-critical space systems without needing deep RF estimation theory expertise upfront.

What You'll Do:

• Deploy, maintain, and monitor RFGL and SIGINT software products in AWS production environments, ensuring high availability and performance for real customers
• Build and improve data handling pipelines, integrations with Spire internal systems, and customer-facing data delivery platforms
• Develop tooling and automation for production monitoring, alerting, logging, and operational observability
• Support satellite tasking operations and command workflows that enable RF geolocation missions
• Investigate and resolve bugs, performance issues, or enhancement needs in satellite payload software, ground systems, and related infrastructure
• Collaborate closely with the senior software engineer, RF domain experts, and cross-functional teams to implement incremental improvements that directly enhance RFGL product reliability and capability
• Contribute to infrastructure automation, CI/CD processes, and secure deployment practices in a regulated environment

Required Qualifications:

• 2–5 years of professional software engineering experience (or equivalent academic + internship/project work for strong early-career candidates)
• Demonstrated hands-on experience with AWS (EC2, S3, Lambda, ECS/EKS, CloudWatch, IAM, or similar services) — this is critical
• Proficiency in Python for scripting, automation, data processing, and backend tooling
• Solid Linux fundamentals (administration, bash scripting, system troubleshooting)
• Experience building or maintaining production systems with a focus on reliability, monitoring, and operational excellence
• Strong communication skills and comfort working collaboratively in a small team under senior guidance

Preferred Qualifications: (These are differentiators)

• Security background or experience implementing secure engineering practices, compliance controls, or working in regulated/government environments
• Background with big data systems, pipelines, or tools (e.g., Spark, Kafka, Databricks, S3-based data lakes)
• Infrastructure-as-Code experience (Terraform, Ansible, CloudFormation, etc.)
• Prior exposure to space, aerospace, satellite operations, ground stations, or related domains
• Familiarity with containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, etc.), or observability tools (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack)
• Any experience reading/debugging C++ or embedded systems code (helpful for payload/ground system work)

Spire operates a hybrid work model, and this position will require you to work a minimum of three days per week in the office.

Access to US export-controlled software and/or technology may be required for this role. If needed, Spire will arrange the necessary licenses—this is not something candidates need to have before applying. #LI-MK1