Team Lead Cloud Infrastructure Team (San Francisco)

Position Overview

At Loft Orbital, we are revolutionizing access to space with reliable, shareable satellites and a mission-driven team of innovators. As the Team Lead Cloud Infrastructure Team, you will oversee a dynamic group of cloud engineers who build and maintain our cloud-based ground segment powering our expanding satellite constellation. You will set technical direction, foster cross-team collaboration, champion DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) best practices, and drive strategic cloud infrastructure initiatives in a fast-paced, high-growth environment.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of highly skilled cloud infrastructure engineers.
• Own daily team operations including standups, sprint planning, retrospectives, and sync meetings to ensure clear priorities and high execution velocity.
• Foster a culture of technical excellence, continuous learning, psychological safety, and collaborative problem solving.
• Define and communicate the team’s mission, vision, and goals aligned with Loft Orbital’s broader business objectives.
• Champion a DevOps/SRE mindset across the company to promote ownership of reliability, scalability, and security.
• Set and drive the cloud infrastructure strategy to ensure systems are secure, scalable, and cost-effective.
• Oversee the design, implementation, and maintenance of multi-cloud solutions (AWS, GCP, Azure) supporting reliable satellite operations.
• Promote Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), cloud automation, observability, and continuous integration/delivery pipelines.
• Establish best practices for incident management, disaster recovery, monitoring, and alerting.
• Lead cloud cost optimization efforts while balancing innovation with operational efficiency.
• Collaborate closely with Software Engineering, Security, Satellite Operations, and Mission teams to meet mission-critical requirements.
• Influence architecture and operational processes across teams to align with infrastructure and reliability goals.
• Drive Agile delivery practices within the Cloud Infrastructure Team and support broader engineering initiatives.

Required Qualifications

• Proven leadership experience managing and scaling high-performing cloud infrastructure or SRE teams.
• Hands-on experience running team ceremonies (daily standups, sprint planning, backlog grooming, retrospectives) and effective Agile practices.
• Agile project management experience delivering complex infrastructure projects in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong expertise in public cloud platforms (with AWS and GCP preferred) and cloud-native technologies.
• Experience with Infrastructure-as-Code (e.g., Terraform), Kubernetes, container orchestration, CI/CD tools (e.g., GitLab CI, ArgoCD), and observability stacks (Prometheus, Grafana, Loki).
• Solid background in automation, scripting (Python, Go, or similar), and modern DevOps practices.
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills to work effectively with engineers, product managers, and leadership.
• Experience managing cloud security and compliance considerations.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in a highly regulated industry (e.g., aerospace, defense, critical infrastructure).
• FinOps experience managing cloud cost visibility and optimization strategies.
• Hybrid infrastructure (cloud and on-prem) management experience.
• Prior work with Satellite Operations, Mission Planning, or Space Systems Engineering.
• Familiarity with GitOps methodologies (e.g., ArgoCD, Flux).

Benefits & Perks

• Compensation: $140,250 - $190,000 per year
• Locations: Golden, CO; San Francisco, CA
• Opportunity to work with cutting-edge space technology on challenging, mission-critical projects.
• Be part of a collaborative, supportive team with an amazing company culture.