Senior Engineering Manager - AI Geospatial Assistant Team

Planet Labs PBC; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 182,900 - 228,600; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Home Office Reimbursement

Tuition Reimbursement

16 Weeks Paid Parental Leave

LinkedIn Learning Access

Wellness Program & EAP

Commuter Benefits

Job summary

Planet Labs PBC seeks a Senior Engineering Manager to lead an AI geospatial product team, transitioning research into a market-ready platform that enables researchers and decision-makers to explore global imagery with natural language and advanced analytics.

You will build a high-velocity squad, foster ownership, and collaborate with AI researchers and design partners to deliver production-grade solutions for forensics and change detection, while mentoring engineers and shaping the roadmap in a

Qualifications

• 6+ years of relevant experience.
• 4+ years of experience leading software engineering teams.
• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field.
• Track record of hiring and leading founding engineering teams in a startup or high-growth environment.
• Experience writing production code with AI tools and shaping AI-enabled SDLC.

Responsibilities

• Build a high-velocity engineering organization focused on transitioning AI capabilities into a robust product.
• Establish a culture of ownership where engineers own customer outcomes.
• Design and iterate on the team's operating system—sprints, RFCs, automated testing.
• Collaborate with AI researchers to translate research into production systems delivering real value.
• Define evaluation-led development with automated benchmarks before features are built.
• Mentor a diverse team and maintain psychological safety and engagement.
• Partner with Product and Design to translate vision into a realistic technical roadmap and de-risk long poles.
• Lead cross-functional initiatives with Product and Design to focus on forensics and change-detection use cases.

Skills

Leadership experience

AI engineering leadership

Geospatial data

Software architecture

Hiring founding teams

Cross-functional collaboration

Mentorship

Problem solving

Stakeholder management

Education

Bachelor's degree in a relevant field

Job description

About the Role

Planet's mission is to image the entire world every day, making global change visible, accessible, and actionable. We are at a critical inflection point: operationalizing promising AI research into delivery-focused enterprise "productization". To drive this, we are building a new product group focused on launching an AI Geospatial Assistant that transforms how our customers interact with global imagery to solve high-stakes problems in forensics and daily change detection.

Our goal is to make these complex insights accessible through an intuitive interface that requires zero user training. Operating with a zero-to-one startup mindset, this team prioritizes weekly learning velocity and customer-driven graduation criteria to move rapidly from private alpha to general availability.

As our Senior Engineering Manager, you are tasked with leading the team and your product partner through this transition. You will lead a high-velocity squad of engineers, transitioning geospatial AI capabilities into a robust, market-ready product. Your focus is on operational excellence, defining success thresholds, managing scope, and ensuring that our bleeding‑edge tech graduates into a dependable tool that provides a durable competitive advantage for our customers.

This is a full-time, hybrid role which will require you to work from our San Francisco office three days per week.

Impact You'll Own

• Build a High‑Density Talent Engine: responsible for the full talent lifecycle‑from sourcing and hiring the initial high‑agency founding squad to designing an onboarding experience that gets specialists productive in a complex geospatial domain.
• Establish a Culture of Extreme Ownership: foster an environment where engineers own customer outcomes rather than just technical tasks, defining accountability in a high‑uncertainty, non‑deterministic AI environment.
• Team Operations: design and iterate on the team’s "operating system" (e.g., sprint cadences, RFC processes, automated testing) to ensure the shift from research to product is supported by rigorous engineering discipline.
• Collaborate with AI Researchers: work closely with our AI Research Team to understand their models, workflows, and emerging capabilities, then guide your team in translating research into production‑ready systems that deliver real value to users.
• Establish Evaluation‑Led Development: ensure the team builds "Evals" (automated benchmarks) before they build features, measuring improvement velocity rather than raw output.
• Career Architecture & Mentorship: actively coach and mentor a diverse group of engineers, navigating their career paths and maintaining high levels of psychological safety and engagement.
• Strategic Roadmapping & De‑risking: partner with Product and Design to translate the ai.planet.com vision into a realistic technical roadmap, identifying "long‑pole" technical risks early to keep the team unblocked.
• Cross‑Functional Leadership: act as a "board of directors" member alongside Product and Design partners, ensuring engineering efforts are laser‑focused on forensics and change‑detection use cases.

What You Bring

• 6+ years of relevant experience
• 4+ years of experience leading software engineering teams
• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field
• Track record of hiring and leading founding engineering teams in a startup or high‑growth "intrapreneurial" environment
• Personally AI‑native: write production code with AI tools, strong opinions on how AI is changing the engineering SDLC, prepared to build a culture where AI is a core collaborator
• Experience and enthusiasm for leading AI engineering teams that have successfully elevated research prototypes into production‑grade applications, fostering an AI‑assisted development workflow
• Expert in the "human element" of engineering‑managing conflict, delivering difficult feedback, and keeping a team motivated through early‑stage pivots
• Ability to identify "process bugs" and implement cultural or structural changes to restore velocity
• Technical Breadth: synthesize input from AI researchers and front‑end experts to make sound architectural and personnel decisions, including collaborations on model fine‑tuning
• Pragmatic Execution: a "good enough" mindset that delivers meaningful customer value
• Impact focused: excited to build an application that enables researchers, journalists, governments, and NGOs to explore the world using natural language and surface crucial insights
• Experience with geospatial data or planetary‑scale analytics is highly preferred

What Makes You Stand Out

• LLM Observability and Monitoring: prior experience with tools for managing non‑deterministic systems (e.g., LangSmith, Arize)
• Public Leadership: comfortable representing the team to executive leadership and external stakeholders, acting as a shield for the team
• Product‑First Mindset: track record of balancing technical excellence with market delivery urgency and graduation criteria
• Geospatial Context: prior experience with geospatial data, satellite imagery, or planetary‑scale analytics

Application Deadline

September 19, 2026 at 11:59 p PT

Benefits While Working at Planet

• Comprehensive Medical, Dental, and Vision plans
• Health Savings Account (HSA) with a company contribution
• Generous Paid Time Off in addition to holidays and company‑wide days off
• 16 Weeks of Paid Parental Leave
• Wellness Program and Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Home Office Reimbursement
• Monthly Phone and Internet Reimbursement
• Tuition Reimbursement and access to LinkedIn Learning
• Equity
• Commuter Benefits (if local to an office)
• Volunteering Paid Time Off

Compensation

San Francisco Salary Range: $182,900 – $228,600 USD. This role may be eligible for discretionary short‑term and long‑term incentives (bonus and equity). The final salary range is determined by job‑related experience, skills and location.

EEO Statement

Planet is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to providing employment opportunities regardless of race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding, age, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other protected classification in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. Know Your Rights.

Accommodations

Planet is an inclusive community and we know that everyone has their own needs. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation during the hiring process, please reach out to [e-mail] or contact your recruiter with your request. Your message will be confidential and we will be happy to assist you.

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AI in Our Interviewing Process

Planet is committed to providing an exceptional interview experience for all candidates. We currently use Metaview to focus on candidates and less on capturing notes. With the candidate's consent, select interviews may be recorded and include a "Planet AI Notetaker" for transcription and summarization. If AI interview technologies are used, the candidate will receive notification and can opt out in advance or in real time. Opting out will not affect their candidacy.

Candiate AI Policy

Planet embraces Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools and encourages responsible use. Candidates may use AI tools to prepare for interviews. However, during any live interview stage or when actively completing assessments for this position, the use of AI tools—e.g., Large Language Models, deep‑fake technology—is strictly prohibited unless explicitly prompted by an interviewer or assessment instructions. Violation of this policy may result in disqualification of the application.