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info@arcternventures.com
Staff Software Engineer, Government Programs
Software Engineering
Northern Virginia, VA, USA
USD 228k-252k / year + Equity
Posted on Oct 3, 2026
About the role
Muon is looking for a Staff Software Engineer to join our team and help scale our core platforms. In this role, you'll have high-level, organizational impact designing foundational architecture, developing shared libraries and services, and developing technical strategies to ship customer-facing features with real, immediate impact. This role will be a technical lead, building the platforms that enable Muon's missions for our government programs.
You'll work within a tight-knit team that values open communication, cross-functional collaboration, and moving quickly without cutting corners. You'll partner closely with other engineering teams to translate business needs into reliable, well-crafted solutions. Whether you're building something from scratch or improving what already exists, you'll have a direct hand in shaping the systems our customers depend on every day. This will include developing software and infrastructure in classified environments.
Responsibilities
- Design, build, and evolve high-performance systems that are scalable, resilient, and reliable in regulated environments
- Deploy, operate, and maintain software platforms and infrastructure into classified environments, including meeting relevant security, compliance, and accreditation requirements.
- Ensure execution across interdependent, multi-month epics and initiatives.
- Own architectural decisions that shape the long-term direction of our core systems.
- Define metrics aligned with critical company goals
- Identify and resolve bottlenecks, performance issues, and systemic risks in production environments.
- Partner with cross-functional teams to translate business and product needs into well-crafted technical solutions.
- Mentor teams and senior engineers, define training plans, define standards for code, testing, design and review.
- Take ownership of systems, tools and processes that have broad company impact.
Qualifications
- BS/MS in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field OR equivalent industry experience.
- 10+ years of software engineering experience, with strong proficiency in Python, C++, or Rust, in production environments.
- Technical depth in distributed systems, backend services, or platform development.
- Demonstrated experience building and operating mission-critical services with uptime, reliability, and performance requirements
- Knowledge of cloud-native infrastructure (e.g., containers, service orchestration, observability stacks).
- Experience mentoring engineers and leading large technical initiatives.
- Active US security clearance; TS/SCI preferred.
Nice-to-have Skills
- Strongly preferred: Experience deploying and operating software infrastructure in classified environments.
- Familiarity with government accreditation processes (e.g., ATO, RMF) and DevSecOps in classified environments.
- Comfort working in a highly interdisciplinary environment with engineers, operators, and domain specialists.
- Familiarity with real-time data processing pipelines or high-throughput systems.
- Experience with CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code, or automated deployment workflows.
- Contributions to open-source projects or a track record of technical writing and knowledge sharing.
Salary
The salary range for this role is $228,000 - $252,000, plus a competitive equity grant and comprehensive benefits package. Final compensation will be determined based on skills, qualifications, experience, and geographic location as assessed during the interview process.
About Muon Space
Founded in 2021, Muon Space is an end-to-end Space Systems Provider that designs, builds, and operates LEO satellite constellations delivering mission-critical data. Our revolutionary, integrated technology stack enables customers to optimize every dimension of their missions for faster time-to-orbit and superior constellation remote sensing performance. Our state-of-the-art facility in the heart of Silicon Valley is optimized for manufacturing spacecraft and rapid, flexible payload integration at scale. From climate monitoring to national security, Muon Space is dedicated to delivering Earth Intelligence for a safer and more resilient world.
Taking Care of Our Team
At Muon salary is only part of our total compensation package. In addition to salary, full-time employees receive equity compensation as well as benefits including medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401k retirement plan, short & long term disability and life insurance. We also offer three weeks paid vacation for new employees, along with 12 paid holidays, unlimited sick time and paid parental leave.
Our mission embraces the entire planet and we believe our team should too. Muon is dedicated to creating a diverse and dynamic company and workforce. We believe in equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, age, national origin, citizenship, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, or gender identity. We value diversity in the workplace, and that starts with our applicants. We encourage you to apply, even if you don't check all the boxes, and we look forward to reviewing your application! In addition, if you need a reasonable accommodation as part of your application for employment or interviews with us, please let us know.
Muon is currently registered and able to hire in the following states:
AL, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, IL, IA, ID, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OR, PA, TN, TX, VT, VA, WA
ITAR/EAR Requirements
This position requires access to export controlled information. To conform to U.S. Government export regulations applicable to that information, applicant must either be (A) a U.S. person, defined as a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (green card holder), (iii) refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, (B) eligible to access the export controlled information without a required export authorization, or (C) eligible and reasonably likely to obtain the required export authorization from the applicable U.S. government agency. The Company may, for legitimate business reasons, decline to pursue any export licensing process.