Mission Planning Engineer: Satellite Imaging & Autonomy

Blacksky Holdings LLC; Herndon (VA); Remote; USD 120,000 - 145,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Disability insurance

Life insurance

401(k) with match

Flexible Spending Accounts

Employee Stock Purchase Program

Professional development

Remote-friendly

Job summary

BlackSky is seeking a Senior Engineer, Mission Planning to design and implement system-level requirements for autonomous constellation operations. You will prototype software in Python or Go, model mission planning concepts, and coordinate with hardware and software teams to ensure efficient imaging campaigns.

The role emphasizes independent work, cross-team collaboration, and on-call support during critical mission phases.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree or higher in aerospace or mechanical engineering, systems engineering, computer science or equivalent.
• At least six (6) years of relevant professional experience.
• Experience with automation of complex systems (satellite, vehicle fleets, drones, etc.).
• Experience with planning or optimization algorithms and fluency with inputs/outputs/constraints to such systems.
• Experience writing technical requirements and driving to implementation.
• Experience with project management or software product development.
• Working knowledge of Go or Python.
• Knowledge of software design, maintenance, and implementation including data structures, data retrieval and storage, algorithm efficiency, and maintainable scalable code.
• Demonstrated initiative to identify and solve problems.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to mission planning integrated product team, interfacing with mission planning, ground software, and operations engineers to plan autonomous constellation operations features.
• Model, implement, and test concepts of operation for autonomous planning of constellation activities including imaging and calibration.
• Model satellite subsystems using methods compatible with ground and control software.
• Support constellation operations and customer fulfillment as a mission planning subject matter expert.
• Translate product concepts to engineering requirements and facilitate reviews with stakeholders.
• Occasional 24/7 support during Launch and Early Operations or Anomaly Response.

Skills

Mission planning

Go

Python

Algorithms

Requirements writing

Embedded systems

Team collaboration

Communication

Workload management

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in aerospace/mechanical engineering, systems engineering, computer science or equivalent

Tools

Go

Python

Job description

BlackSky is seeking a Senior Engineer, Mission Planning to design and implement system-level requirements for autonomous constellation operations. You will prototype software in Python or Go, model mission planning concepts, and coordinate with hardware and software teams to ensure efficient imaging campaigns.

The role emphasizes independent work, cross-team collaboration, and on-call support during critical mission phases.