VP, Defense & Intelligence Engineering - Scale Geo AI

NextGenEnergyJobs; Arlington, Northern (VA, KY); Hybrid; USD 260,000 - 420,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Comprehensive Medical, Dental, and Vis

HSA with company contribution

16 weeks of paid parental leave

Home office reimbursements

Monthly phone and internet reimburse

Tuition reimbursement and LinkedIn学习

Equity

Commuter benefits

Job summary

Planet is seeking an executive leader to drive the D&I Solutions Engineering organization, owning architecture, delivery, and performance for flagship dual-use products in defense and intelligence.

The role is hybrid with offices in San Francisco or Washington DC three days per week; requires 15+ years in software engineering and 8+ years leading multi-disciplinary teams, ITAR/EAR experience, and security-clearance eligibility.

Qualifications

• 15+ years in software engineering and systems architecture focusing on high-scale data, computer vision, or geospatial apps.
• 8+ years leading and scaling multi-disciplinary engineering orgs (software, data/ML, platform, cloud).
• Experience with ITAR/EAR data handling and compliance.
• Architecting and operating dual-use or defense software at scale.
• Active high-level government security clearance or eligibility for top-secret.
• Expertise in distributed cloud architectures, high-throughput pipelines, API infra, and ML integration.
• Bachelor’s degree in a technical field (or equivalent practical experience).
• Master’s degree or Ph.D. in a related discipline.
• Experience building foundation models for remote sensing or agentic platforms.
• Background in secure government environments (air-gapped, sovereign cloud).
• Experience in multi-sensor data fusion (optical, SAR).
• Access to export-controlled information compliance requirement.

Responsibilities

• Lead, scale, and direct the engineering organization for dual-use defense/software products.
• Own technical architecture, systems development, and delivery of flagship products.
• Oversee cross-functional teams across software, AI/ML, analytics, and engineering.
• Ensure ITAR/EAR compliance and secure deployment pipelines.
• Drive metrics, availability, and engineering best practices.

Skills

Leadership

System architecture

Distributed cloud

Geospatial / remote sensing

API infrastructure

ML model integration

Security clearance / eligibility

ITAR/EAR compliance

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Data Science, or related field

Master’s degree or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Machine Learning, or related discipline

Tools

AWS GovCloud/C2S

Job description

Planet is seeking an executive leader to drive the D&I Solutions Engineering organization, owning architecture, delivery, and performance for flagship dual-use products in defense and intelligence.

The role is hybrid with offices in San Francisco or Washington DC three days per week; requires 15+ years in software engineering and 8+ years leading multi-disciplinary teams, ITAR/EAR experience, and security-clearance eligibility.