Astranis Careers in 2026: What It's Actually Like Building GEO Satellites in San Francisco
Astranis careers in 2026: what it's actually like building GEO satellites in San Francisco
Astranis doesn't get the attention that SpaceX or Rocket Lab gets, but the company has quietly become one of the more interesting aerospace employers in San Francisco. They build small geostationary satellites — about 400 kg each, roughly 1/20th the size of traditional GEO birds — and sell dedicated bandwidth to telecom operators who need coverage in specific regions. It's a fundamentally different approach from Starlink's mega-constellation model, and it's working.
Here's what Astranis careers actually look like in 2026: the roles, the pay, the culture (including the parts nobody puts on the careers page), and whether it's worth joining a company that requires a minimum 55-hour workweek.
What Astranis does and why it matters
The easiest way to understand Astranis is to contrast it with Starlink. SpaceX launched roughly 8,800 satellites into low Earth orbit to provide global consumer broadband. Astranis puts individual satellites into geostationary orbit — 22,000 miles up — where one satellite sits over a fixed region and provides dedicated capacity for 8-10 years.
The business model is wholesale, not consumer. Astranis sells bandwidth capacity to telecom companies: APCO Networks in Mexico, Chunghwa Telecom in Taiwan ($115M deal), Thaicom in Thailand, Pacific Dataport in Alaska. These operators buy dedicated satellite capacity and resell it to their own customers. Astranis doesn't compete with Starlink for individual subscribers — they sell the pipe, not the water.
This matters for job seekers because it means Astranis is building hardware, not just software. Every satellite they launch is a custom-configured communications system that has to work perfectly for a decade in one of the harshest radiation environments in Earth orbit. GEO is significantly harder on electronics than LEO.
What Astranis is hiring for
From our database, Astranis has 124 active job listings, all based in San Francisco. The distribution across departments:
| Category | Open Roles | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Software | 23 | 19% |
| Mechanical Engineering | 22 | 18% |
| Electrical Engineering | 20 | 16% |
| Aerospace Engineering | 16 | 13% |
| Business & Finance | 13 | 10% |
| Manufacturing | 10 | 8% |
| Supply Chain | 8 | 6% |
| Technician | 6 | 5% |
| Operations | 4 | 3% |
| Avionics | 2 | 2% |
The hiring mix tells you something important: this is a hardware company that also needs strong software. Mechanical, electrical, and aerospace engineering account for nearly half of all openings. The software roles are mostly embedded systems and flight software — not web apps.
Every Astranis role is in San Francisco. There are no remote positions, no satellite offices, and no plans for geographic expansion that have been announced. If you're not willing to be in SF, Astranis isn't an option.
Astranis salary ranges
The average salary range across all 124 listings is $97,000–$129,000. For San Francisco, that's modest. A mid-level software engineer at a Bay Area tech company makes significantly more. But Astranis isn't competing with Google for talent — they're competing with SpaceX, Rocket Lab, and other space hardware companies, where the pay gap is smaller.
What Astranis does offer is equity in a company valued above $2 billion (as of its latest January 2026 fundraise). If the company succeeds — and their growing customer list suggests it might — that equity could be worth substantially more than the base salary difference.
The 55-hour workweek policy
This is the thing everyone who's considering Astranis wants to know about. The company has a written policy requiring a minimum 55-hour workweek. That's not a suggestion or a cultural expectation — it's stated policy.
Employee reviews on Glassdoor (3.8/5, 72 reviews) reflect a predictable split on this topic. Some employees describe it as reasonable for a hardware startup building actual satellites. Others describe stretches of crunch time with forced overnight and weekend shifts that go well beyond even the 55-hour baseline.
The positive reviews consistently mention smart coworkers, genuine mission impact, and the unusual opportunity to work on every aspect of a satellite program in a small enough company that your work is visible. The negative reviews consistently mention leadership using "startup culture" as justification for unsustainable hours and problems being brushed under the rug.
If you're coming from big aerospace (Boeing, Lockheed, Northrop) and you're frustrated by slow pace and bureaucracy, Astranis will feel refreshingly fast. If you're coming from a tech company with reasonable hours and want to "do space," the hours will be a shock. Know which camp you're in before applying.
Recent milestones and trajectory
Astranis has been executing on a rapid schedule through 2025-2026:
- December 2024: Launched four MicroGEO satellites on Falcon 9, serving Thaicom and APCO Networks
- April 2025: Signed $115M deal with Chunghwa Telecom for Taiwan's first dedicated satellite
- August 2025: Named prime contractor for a U.S. Space Force program
- November 2025: Unveiled the Omega satellite platform with 5x the bandwidth of current MicroGEO models (50+ Gbps)
- January 2026: Raised new funding round above $2 billion valuation; signed Oman's MB Group as customer
The company has raised $753 million total, backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Y Combinator, BlackRock, and Venrock. The business trajectory matters for job seekers because it indicates runway and program stability — two things that can't be taken for granted in the space startup world.
Interview process
Astranis interviews typically span about 2 months with 4 separate stages:
- Recruiter screen (45 minutes) — basic qualifications and interest
- Behavioral interview — culture fit, past accomplishments, what you bring to the role
- Technical rounds (1-2) — domain-specific depth testing
- Final round — team fit and offer discussion
For engineering roles, expect technical questions in your actual domain. Electrical engineers report questions about I2C circuit behavior, parasitic capacitance, passive filters, and op amp circuit analysis. Aerospace engineers get questions about radiation effects on solar panels and satellite thermal calculations. The difficulty rating on Glassdoor is 3.2/5 — moderate, but the technical questions are specific to satellite systems, not generic textbook problems.
How Astranis compares
| Company | Active Jobs | Avg Salary | Location | Glassdoor |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Astranis | 124 | $97K–$129K | SF only | 3.8/5 |
| SpaceX | 1,569 | $89K–$114K | Multi-site | 3.6/5 |
| Rocket Lab | 198 | $92K–$120K | Multi-site | 3.7/5 |
| Relativity Space | 280 | $112K–$150K | Long Beach | 3.2/5 |
Astranis pays less than Relativity Space but has a higher employee satisfaction score. Compared to SpaceX, the pay is similar but the team is much smaller — around 750 employees versus SpaceX's 17,000+. In a small company, your individual impact on the satellite program is more direct and visible.
Who should apply
Astranis is a strong fit if you want hands-on satellite hardware experience, you're comfortable with startup hours, and you either live in or want to move to San Francisco. The company is at an inflection point — past the "will they survive?" phase with $753M in funding, but still small enough that individual engineers shape the product.
It's a poor fit if you prioritize work-life balance, need location flexibility, or want the pay premium that Bay Area tech companies offer for equivalent engineering skills.
Browse all Astranis job listings on Zero G Talent. For other satellite-focused companies, see Planet Labs (Earth observation, 73 jobs) or browse San Francisco space jobs.
