Senior Ground Station Engineer

Position Overview

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 a global company with employees working remotely worldwide and joining us from offices in San Francisco, Washington DC, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, and The Netherlands.

As a Senior Ground Station Engineer at Planet, you will be a member of an Operations and Development team focused on >99% uptime of a geographically diverse Ground Station network. The network is composed of a mix of cloud infrastructure, physical servers, networking equipment, and industrial controllers working in unison to autonomously track and communicate with Planet’s 150+ satellite constellation. Planet’s satellites generate a substantial dataset and moving that data across the Ground Station network daily poses ever changing design goals for our Operations Team. The Ground Station team works closely with Spacecraft Operators and Mission Control engineers to autonomously control the spacecraft and bring the data back to Earth.

An essential element of this position requires the ability to climb, and lift/push/pull equipment up to 50 pounds.

This is a full-time, remote position based in the United States. If located near an office, you are expected to work from that office 3 days per week.

Impact You'll Own

• Ground Station Network spanning 6 continents.
• Act as a subject matter expert for Ground Station Compute and Network Engineering, owning hardware selection and system design responsibilities.
• Perform capacity planning and analysis, optimizing the network to meet mission requirements.
• Oversee the global ground station IP network, compute and storage facilities, and 24/7 monitoring infrastructure.
• Partner and collaborate with various teams at Planet, ranging from Mission Operations to Spacecraft design, to ensure the Ground Station Network meets all of the needs to achieve Planet’s missions.

What You Bring

• Minimum 4-year degree or equivalent technical certification in Computer Science, Information Technology, or other Natural Sciences; or minimum 6 years of experience in an equivalent role.
• 4+ years working in an IT environment managing a large or complex environment.
• 2+ years of programming experience with Bash, Python, Perl, Rust, Go, C/C++ or equivalents.
• 4+ years of Linux or UNIX administration experience in a production environment.
• 4+ years working with BGP, IPSec, TCP, UDP, and IP protocols in a production environment.
• Willingness to travel up to 25% of the time.
• Ability to foster a collaborative environment and mentor team members.
• Ability to work with little or no supervision.
• Ability to lift 50 pounds (22 kgs) without assistance.
• Hold a valid Passport and can travel internationally to Planet's Ground Station Locations.
• Hold a valid Driver's License.

What Makes You Stand Out

• Understanding of RF communication and satellite communication protocols.
• Prior experience leading a team in a technical leadership capacity.
• 2+ years of experience in an Operations environment with an on-call schedule.
• 2+ years of experience with antenna system calibration.