Welcome to Planet. We believe in using space to help life on Earth.

Planet designs, builds, and operates the largest constellation of imaging satellites in history. This constellation delivers an unprecedented dataset of empirical information via a revolutionary cloud-based platform to authoritative figures in commercial, environmental, and humanitarian sectors. We are both a space company and data company all rolled into one.

Customers and users across the globe use Planet's data to develop new technologies, drive revenue, power research, and solve our world’s toughest obstacles.

As we control every component of hardware design, manufacturing, data processing, and software engineering, our office is a truly inspiring mix of experts from a variety of domains.

We have a people-centric approach toward culture and community and we strive to iterate in a way that puts our team members first and prepares our company for growth. Join Planet and be a part of our mission to change the way people see the world.

Planet is headquartered in San Francisco, California, Earth.

About the Role:

The work of the Space Operations team is essential to Planet’s success. Our team responsibility is to maintain and optimize the health & productivity of the largest constellation of Earth Observation satellites. 

As a Space Systems Engineer your mission will be to support day-to-day operations, make assessments based on data analysis, triaging and resolving anomalies, running on-orbit experiments, testing and rolling out software on ground and on-orbit and commissioning satellites.

Because of the scale of our fleet, the core of our operations is automation, so you will be writing and maintaining software critical to operations and aggregating large amounts of data into relevant metrics. 

The ideal candidate is a self-starter, data oriented, excellent communicator and has the ability to switch context quickly. You will be working in a close collaborative environment, frequently communicating with hardware and software experts from multiple teams across the organization debugging anomalies, improving services and providing feedback from on-orbit experience to inform and help design & operate our next generation of satellites.  

Impact You’ll Own:

• Perform daily checks on the fleet, test and perform flight software upgrades, debug satellite anomalies, perform on-orbit experiments, create and maintain procedures
• Develop and maintain real time and critical software solutions for operations 
• Develop and maintain scripts to aggregate satellite data and generate metrics for system monitoring 
• Identify issues and inefficiencies in the full stack of services used in operations using data analysis
• Identify areas of improvement and execute changes to improve the capacity and productivity of the fleet
• Provide feedback to launch, manufacturing and spacecraft engineering based on on-orbit performance metrics, tech demo operations and forecasting models.
• Shape operations for next generation spacecraft 
• Implement machine learning solutions to predict and analyze satellite anomalies

What You Bring:

• MSc in engineering or computer science
• Software development experience in Python or equivalent
• Data-driven mindset and comfort with statistical analysis
• Understanding of space environment and/or spacecraft systems engineering
• High motivation to work in a very dynamic environment
• An engineering self-starter mindset of empirically improving the availability and performance of our constellation
• Hands-on can-do attitude, great interpersonal skills and ability to collaborate effectively across many technical teams

What Makes You Stand Out:

• Agile Software development experience 
• DevOps experience (e.g. Git, Gitlab, Docker, Jenkins, Bash, Linux, CI/CD, Sentry, Datadog)
• Experience with Space Operations
• Practical experience in solving problems by exploiting large cloud-based datasets
• Experience in machine learning or with optimization tools 

Benefits While Working at Planet:

Global

• Be part of a vibrant international company of 45+ nationalities with office locations in different countries
• Sense of belonging in a diverse and inclusive culture
• Experience a fast-paced spacetech environment
• Countless opportunities to connect within and outside of work with regular team events  
• Personal development with annual L&D budget
• Join our regular hack-weeks and meetup events to exchange knowledge
• Employee Resource Groups that provide safe and empowering spaces for connection and mentorship
• Give back to the community by using one day per quarter for charitable work as part of our 1% Pledge
• Health programs and flexible working hours to support work life balance
• Be part of our growth: we offer RSUs for our employees
• Daily virtual mindful bodywork sessions to stay healthy
• We offer equipment and wellbeing support during these challenging times 

Berlin 

• Enjoy a spacious central office located in U/S-bahn Zoologischer Garten
• Employees’ well-being is our top priority: on site massages, snacks, fruits, drinks and company lunches 
• Additional contributions to Company Pension schemes
• Enjoy unique offers and discounts for companies/web shops 
• Additional Company Holidays 
• Offsites and Happy Hours
• Volunteering Benefits

Some Press About Us: 

Our CEO, Will Marshall featured on TED and featured in a Planet Blog

“Planet: Bringing Space Back Down to Earth”

Tiny, privately owned satellites are changing how we view the Earth features in NBC News

“Planet And Rocket Lab Create Mission Patch To Honor Women In Aerospace” —Planet Blog

Why we care so much about Belonging. 

We’re dedicated to helping the whole Planet, and to do that we must strive to represent all of it within each of our offices and on all of our teams. That’s why Planet is guided by an ultimate  north star of Belonging, dreaming big as we approach our ongoing work with diversity, equity and inclusion.  If this job intrigues you, but you’re thinking you might not have all the qualifications, please... do apply!  At Planet, we are looking for well-rounded people from around the world who can contribute to more ways than just what is listed in this job description.  We don’t just fill positions, we aspire to fulfill people’s careers, most excited about folks who are motivated by our underlying humanitarian efforts.  We are a few orbits around the sun before we get to where we want to be, so we hope you’re excited to come along for the ride. 

#LI-MI1