Senior Cloud Engineer

K2 is building the largest and highest-power satellites ever flown, unlocking performance levels previously out of reach across every orbit. Backed by $450M from leading investors including Altimeter Capital, Redpoint Ventures, T. Rowe Price, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Alpine Space Ventures, and others - with an additional $500M in signed contracts across commercial and US government customers - we're mass-producing the highest-power satellite platforms ever built for missions from LEO to deep space.


The rise of heavy-lift launch vehicles is shifting the industry from an era of mass constraint to one of mass abundance, and we believe this new era demands a fundamentally different class of spacecraft. Engineered to survive the harshest radiation environments and to fully capitalize on today's and tomorrow's massive rockets, K2 satellites deliver unmatched capability at constellation scale and across multiple orbits.


With multiple launches planned through 2026 and 2027, we're Building Bigger to develop the solar system and become a Kardashev Type II (K2) civilization. If you are a motivated individual who thrives in a fast-paced environment and you're excited about contributing to the success of a groundbreaking Series C space startup, we'd love for you to apply.


The Role


Our enterprise software team builds the digital backbone that powers K2 Space's satellite design, manufacturing, and mission operations. We develop tools that connect engineering, production, and mission control into a seamless ecosystem - enabling our hardware to get from concept to orbit faster than ever before.


As we continue to grow, we're looking for a Cloud Engineer who shares our vision: someone who doesn't just maintain cloud infrastructure - but thinks deeply about scalability, security, reliability, and how cloud systems power space-grade engineering and operations.


Responsibilities

• Design, build, deploy, and maintain cloud infrastructure supporting mission-critical workloads (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, FaaS) across production, staging, and development environments.
• Define and implement infrastructure-as-code (IaC) automation (Terraform, ARM/Bicep, etc.), CI/CD pipelines, configuration management, and other automation tooling to enable rapid, reproducible, and secure deployments.
• Collaborate with software, mission-ops, and DevOps teams to integrate cloud architecture into our development lifecycle (DevSecOps - from build to launch).
• Establish and manage identity and access management (IAM), role-based access, encryption, network security, secrets management, and compliance controls.
• Monitor and maintain the health, performance, and cost-effectiveness of cloud services; implement logging, monitoring, alerting, and capacity planning.
• Perform security assessments, threat modeling, vulnerability scans, compliance audits; develop mitigation strategies and drive best practices.
• Create clear documentation of architectures, relevant procedures, security policies, and infrastructure diagrams - and communicate across teams and stakeholders.
• Stay on top of cloud security threats, emerging technologies, and compliance requirements - and champion proactive improvements in our cloud posture.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field - or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years (senior-level) hands-on experience managing cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure, GCP or similar), preferably across multiple cloud platforms.
• Strong proficiency with IaC tools (Terraform, ARM/Bicep, CloudFormation, etc.), CI/CD, configuration management, and scripting (e.g. Python, Bash, PowerShell).
• Solid understanding of cloud-native services (VMs, containers/Kubernetes, serverless, databases, networking, storage) and ability to design scalable, resilient architectures.
• Experience with container orchestration systems (Kubernetes, Docker) and modern deployment workflows.
• Deep knowledge of security best practices: IAM, encryption, network security (firewalls, VNets), secrets management, monitoring, logging, and compliance frameworks.
• Familiarity with (or willingness to learn) compliance regimes relevant to defense/space sector (e.g., FedRAMP, CMMC, ITAR, government-cloud environments) - especially if working on sensitive or government-facing projects.
• Excellent problem-solving skills, strong communication (verbal + writing), ability to work in cross-functional teams, and comfort working in a fast-paced, mission-driven startup environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced cloud certifications (e.g. AWS Solutions Architect/DevOps, Azure Administrator/DevOps/Security, Kubernetes certifications)
• Experience with hybrid clouds / Gov-cloud environments / regulated-space-industry compliance
• Prior experience supporting aerospace, defense, or highly regulated workloads
• Familiarity with GitOps workflows, MLOps pipelines, container-security tooling, secrets vaults (e.g. HashiCorp Vault), log aggregators / monitoring systems (e.g. ELK, Splunk), and automated incident response / forensics pipelines.

Compensation and Benefits:

• Base salary range for this role is $165,000 - $215,000 + equity in the company
• Salary will be based on several factors including, but not limited to: knowledge and skills, education, and experience level
• Comprehensive benefits package including paid time off, medical/dental/vision/ coverage, life insurance, paid parental leave, and many other perks

If you don't meet 100% of the preferred skills and experience, we encourage you to still apply! Building a spacecraft unlike any other requires a team unlike any other and non-traditional career twists and turns are encouraged!

If you need a reasonable accommodation as part of your application for employment or interviews with us, please let us know.

Export Compliance

As defined in the ITAR, "U.S. Persons" include U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents (i.e., Green Card holders), and certain protected individuals (e.g., refugees/asylees, American Samoans). Please consult with a knowledgeable advisor if you are unsure whether you are a "U.S. Person."

The person hired for this role will have access to information and items controlled by U.S. export control regulations, including the export control regulations outlined in the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR). The person hired for this role must therefore either be a "U.S. person" as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15 or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export control license.

Equal Opportunity

K2 Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with K2 Space is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.