Autonomous Satellite Operations Engineering Lead

Openkrill; United States; Remote; USD 165,000 - 205,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision

401(k) matching

Paid time off

Professional development

Stock Purchase Program

Job summary

BlackSky is seeking an Engineering Manager for the Mission Management team to guide autonomous satellite operations planning and software that schedules imaging activities. You will partner with flight ops, ground software, and product teams to ensure reliability and performance while meeting mission milestones.

The role requires strong architectural leadership, experience with distributed systems, and a passion for building scalable processes.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in computer science, mathematics, physics, statistics, or related field.
• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, incl. complex distributed/autonomous systems.
• At least 2 years leading engineering teams with formal leadership responsibilities.
• Strong programming background (Go, Python, C++), capable of architectural guidance.
• Experience deploying microservices in cloud environments and on-prem Kubernetes.
• CI/CD, automated testing, version control, and operational best practices.
• Able to manage priorities, coordinate across teams, and deliver in fast-paced settings.
• Excellent communication and collaboration in cross-functional contexts.

Responsibilities

• Build, develop, and lead the Mission Management engineering team for autonomous satellite operations planning.
• Drive prioritization and planning across Mission Management projects to align with business goals.
• Partner with flight operations, ground software, and product teams to clarify requirements.
• Provide technical direction and architectural guidance for constellation activities.
• Improve engineering processes including design reviews, testing, and safety considerations.
• Foster on-call culture and incident response for live systems.
• Plan roadmaps, allocate resources, and execute across projects balancing speed and reliability.
• Hire, onboard, coach, and evaluate engineers; support career growth.

Skills

Go

Python

C++

Distributed systems

Cloud (AWS/GCP/Azure)

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Leadership

Communication

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s in CS, math, physics, statistics or related field

Tools

Kubernetes

Terraform

Ansible

Docker

Job description

BlackSky is seeking an Engineering Manager for the Mission Management team to guide autonomous satellite operations planning and software that schedules imaging activities. You will partner with flight ops, ground software, and product teams to ensure reliability and performance while meeting mission milestones.

The role requires strong architectural leadership, experience with distributed systems, and a passion for building scalable processes.