Autonomous Satellite Operations Engineering Manager

BlackSky; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 165,000 - 205,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

401(k) matching

Professional development

Flex spending accounts

Job summary

BlackSky in Seattle, WA, seeks a Ground & Control Services Engineering Manager to lead a team building software that controls the satellite constellation, bridging hardware interfaces with cloud microservices to keep satellites healthy and responsive.

You will mentor engineers, define roadmaps, and partner with operations, spacecraft engineering, and product leadership to meet production goals and program milestones in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment.

Qualifications

• Eight+ years in software engineering, with distributed/mission-critical systems.
• Two+ years leading engineering teams with formal responsibilities.
• Strong coding in Go, Python or C++, with architectural guidance.
• Experience building/deploying microservices in cloud and Kubernetes.
• Solid CI/CD, testing, version control, and op practices.
• Proven ability to prioritize, coordinate across teams, and deliver.
• U.S. citizen may be required for some programs.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Ground & Control Services team overseeing autonomous satellite operations and real-time communications.
• Drive prioritization and planning across GCS projects to align with business goals and missions.
• Collaborate with operations, flight software, and product leadership to clarify requirements.
• Provide technical direction and architectural guidance for space-ground interfaces.
• Improve engineering processes, code reviews, testing, and safety considerations.
• Foster on-call culture and support live systems, incident response and root-cause analysis.
• Manage multi-project roadmaps, resources, and execution with reliability in mind.
• Hire, onboard, and mentor engineers; promote collaboration and accountability.

Skills

Go

Python

C++

Microservices

Cloud platforms

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Leadership

Architecture guidance

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS/Engineering

Master's degree (preferred)

Tools

Terraform

Ansible

Kubernetes

Nomad

Job description

BlackSky in Seattle, WA, seeks a Ground & Control Services Engineering Manager to lead a team building software that controls the satellite constellation, bridging hardware interfaces with cloud microservices to keep satellites healthy and responsive.

You will mentor engineers, define roadmaps, and partner with operations, spacecraft engineering, and product leadership to meet production goals and program milestones in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment.