ML Runtime Engineer Loft Orbital

Wanna join the adventure?

Loft's AI for Space group is building the stack that runs real machine learning in orbit; turning raw sensor data into decisions on the satellite itself, so insight reaches the customer in minutes instead of hours.
The AI Engineering team is where models meet the spacecraft. We own the full path from a partner's trained model to something that actually runs — fast — on flight hardware: compiling ONNX models into optimized engines for each accelerator, the Space Inference Engine and its execution providers, the SDK that packages models for flight, and the perf tooling that proves a model fits its power, thermal, and latency budget before it ever leaves the ground. As we open the platform to a growing roster of defense and Earth-observation partners, the team's scope and the range of silicon we target are expanding fast.

As our ML Runtime Engineer, you'll own model compilation and the performance tooling behind it. We're looking for someone scrappy — the kind of engineer who takes an unfamiliar model and an unforgiving power budget, digs into the graph, and gets it running on real hardware without waiting for the path to be handed to them. You'll move between model compilation, runtime internals, quantization, and hardware-in-the-loop CI, sometimes in the same afternoon.

About this role:

• Own model compilation: turn partner ONNX models into optimized engines per accelerator (TensorRT, Hailo, AMD/ROCm), within power & thermal budgets
• Build the ground-side compile & delivery path; define how a mismatched engine is detected/rejected on-node
• Build performance tooling: benchmarking, profiling, operator-coverage matrices, and budget validation
• Contribute to Space Inference Engine (execution providers) and the SDK (model build & packaging); coordinate the OBSW / Runtime team

• Strong C++ and Python
• Model compilation: TensorRT (and/or equivalent graph compilers)
• ONNX Runtime, quantization & inference perf optimization
• Embedded / edge GPU deployment (NVIDIA Jetson)
• Benchmarking & profiling / perf tooling
• CI/CD incl. hardware-in-the-loop

• Hailo SDK and/or AMD ROCm compilation (iX10)
• Writing custom kernels / operator plugins
• Remote sensing / large-image handling 
• RF / IQ signal data exposure
• Meson build, Yocto / minimal Debian images
• Model-weight protection / secure execution

• Equity, we want you to have an active role in our success
• Up to 35 days of Paid Time Off (vacations & RTT ) and flexible working hours, we want you to be at your best
• Health and life insurance, we care about your health
• Lunch Vouchers, because let’s be honest, we love food! (we even have a slack channel about it #loft-gourmand)
• Cross-office travel opportunities between San Francisco, Colorado, and Toulouse to learn from our differences
• Company and team off-sites and many other events to work & celebrate together
• Relocation assistance to Toulouse when applicable