Senior Engineering Manager - AI Geospatial Assistant Team

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

Benefits offered by this job

Medical coverage

HSA contribution

Paid time off

Parental leave

Wellness program

Home office reimbursement

Phone stipend

Tuition reimbursement

Equity

Commuter benefits

Volunteer PTO

Job summary

Planet is seeking a Senior Engineering Manager to guide a high-velocity squad in SF, delivering an AI Geospatial Assistant from private alpha to GA. You’ll drive operational excellence, define success thresholds, and partner with Product/Design to build a realistic technical roadmap.

The role emphasizes AI-native practices, talent development, and cross-functional leadership. The position requires 6+ years of experience, 4+ years leading software teams, and a track record of scaling founding

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 intrapreneurial environment.
• Personally AI-native: write production code with AI tools, hold strong opinions on AI’s impact on the SDLC, and build a culture where AI is a core collaborator.
• Experience leading AI engineering teams that successfully elevate research prototypes into production-grade applications.
• Expertise in the human element of engineering—managing conflict, delivering difficult feedback, and maintaining motivation 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 frontend experts to make sound architectural and personnel decisions; identify optimizations requiring cross-team collaboration.
• Pragmatic execution: a “good-enough—move-on” mentality that avoids perfectionism at the cost of customer value.
• Impact focus: excited by building an application that, once launched, gives researchers, journalists, governments, and NGOs the ability to explore the world using natural language and surface crucial insights.
• Experience with geospatial data or planetary-scale analytics is highly preferred.

Responsibilities

• Build a high-density talent engine: responsibility for the full talent lifecycle, from sourcing and hiring to designing an onboarding experience that gets specialists productive in a complex geospatial domain.
• Establish a culture of extreme ownership: define accountability in a high-uncertainty, non-deterministic AI environment.
• Team operations: design and iterate on the team’s operating system (sprint cadences, RFC processes, automated testing) to support the shift from research to product.
• Collaborate with AI researchers: translate research into production-ready systems that deliver real value to users.
• Establish evaluation-led development: ensure the team builds automated benchmarks before building features to measure improvement velocity.
• Career architecture & mentorship: coach a diverse group of engineers, maintain psychological safety and engagement.
• Strategic road-mapping & de-risking: partner with Product and Design to translate vision into a realistic technical roadmap and identify early technical risks.
• Cross-functional leadership: act as a board-of-directors member alongside Product and Design to keep engineering laser-focused on forensics and change-detection use cases.

Skills

Engineering leadership

AI tooling familiarity

People management

Geospatial domain knowledge

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

LangSmith

Arize

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 AI research into delivery‑focused enterprise productization. We are building a new product group focused on launching an AI Geospatial Assistant that transforms how our customers interact with global imagery for forensics and daily change detection.

As our Senior Engineering Manager you will lead a high‑velocity squad of engineers and partner with product to move from private alpha to general availability. Your focus will be on operational excellence, defining success thresholds, managing scope, and ensuring that bleeding‑edge technology becomes a dependable tool. The role is not a traditional Engineering Manager position; the EM must be personally AI‑native, build with AI tools daily, and pioneer a culture where AI is a core collaborator in the development process.

This is a full‑time, hybrid role that requires you to work from our San Francisco office three days a week.

Impact You’ll Own

• Build a high‑density talent engine: responsibility for the full talent lifecycle, from sourcing and hiring to designing an onboarding experience that gets specialists productive in a complex geospatial domain.
• Establish a culture of extreme ownership: define accountability in a high‑uncertainty, non‑deterministic AI environment.
• Team operations: design and iterate on the team’s operating system (sprint cadences, RFC processes, automated testing) to support the shift from research to product.
• Collaborate with AI researchers: translate research into production‑ready systems that deliver real value to users.
• Establish evaluation‑led development: ensure the team builds automated benchmarks before building features to measure improvement velocity.
• Career architecture & mentorship: coach a diverse group of engineers, maintain psychological safety and engagement.
• Strategic road‑mapping & de‑risking: partner with Product and Design to translate vision into a realistic technical roadmap and identify early technical risks.
• Cross‑functional leadership: act as a board‑of‑directors member alongside Product and Design to keep engineering 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, hold strong opinions on AI’s impact on the SDLC, and build a culture where AI is a core collaborator.
• Experience leading AI engineering teams that successfully elevate research prototypes into production‑grade applications.
• Expertise in the human element of engineering—managing conflict, delivering difficult feedback, and maintaining motivation 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 frontend experts to make sound architectural and personnel decisions; identify optimizations requiring cross‑team collaboration.
• Pragmatic execution: a “good‑enough—move‑on” mentality that avoids perfectionism at the cost of customer value.
• Impact focus: excited by building an application that, once launched, gives researchers, journalists, governments, and NGOs the ability 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: experience with LangSmith, Arize, or similar.
• Public leadership: comfortable representing the team’s work to executive leadership and external stakeholders, acting as a shield so the team can focus on building.
• 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.

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

The US base salary range for this full‑time position at the commencement of employment is $182,900 – $228,600 USD. Additional short‑term and long‑term incentives (bonus and equity) may also apply. The final salary range is determined by job‑related experience, skills, and location.

Application Deadline: September 19, 2026 at 11:59 p PT

San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance

We will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records in accordance with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance.

EEO Statement

Planet is an equal‑opportunity employer committed to building a community where everyone belongs. We invite people from all backgrounds to apply. The company provides 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.