Ground and Control Services, Software Engineering Manager

1 month, 3 weeks ago
Full-time
Lead
Software Development
BlackSky

BlackSky

BlackSky provides high-quality earth observation satellite imagery in near real time, enabling customers to anticipate and act swiftly on global changes.

Professional Services
251-1K
Founded 2015
$50M raised

Description

  • Lead, mentor, and grow the Ground and Control Services engineering team responsible for autonomous satellite operations, real-time tasking, and ground-to-space communications.
  • Drive prioritization, planning, and roadmap execution across GCS projects to align engineering work with commercial objectives, program requirements, customer commitments, and mission operations.
  • Partner with operations, communication engineering, flight software, mission planning, product, and program leadership to clarify requirements and maintain end-to-end system understanding.
  • Provide technical direction and architectural guidance for systems interfacing with ground stations, satellite communication protocols, and mission-critical operational workflows.
  • Establish and improve engineering processes, including design reviews, code reviews, testing practices, system safety considerations, and operational readiness.
  • Support live operational systems through incident response, root-cause analysis, and long-term corrective actions.
  • Manage resource allocation across multiple projects while balancing rapid iteration with long-term reliability and availability.
  • Hire, onboard, coach, and evaluate engineers with an emphasis on skill development, collaboration, and accountability.
  • Perform additional leadership tasks as needed to support team and mission success.

Requirements

  • Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
  • 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, including work on complex distributed, autonomous, or mission-critical systems.
  • 2+ years of experience leading engineering teams as a people manager or technical lead with formal leadership responsibilities.
  • Strong technical background in one or more programming languages such as Go, Python, or C++, with the ability to provide architectural guidance and review complex designs.
  • Experience developing and deploying microservices in cloud environments such as AWS, GCP, or Azure, and on-premises Kubernetes-based systems.
  • Solid understanding of CI/CD pipelines, automated testing strategies, version control, and operational best practices.
  • Demonstrated ability to manage priorities, coordinate across teams, and deliver results in fast-paced environments with operational dependencies.
  • Excellent communication, collaboration, and conflict-resolution skills in cross-functional settings.
  • Some programs supported by this role may require U.S. citizenship.
  • Master’s degree or higher in a relevant technical field (preferred).
  • 10+ years of professional engineering experience, including leadership of high-availability or mission-critical software teams (preferred).
  • Experience with infrastructure-as-code tools such as Terraform or Ansible, container orchestration such as Kubernetes or Nomad, or distributed systems (preferred).
  • Knowledge of system safety, fault tolerance, redundancy, and recovery strategies in autonomous or operationally sensitive environments (preferred).
  • Background in satellite operations, ground stations, or aerospace domains such as X-Band, UHF, or telemetry, or experience supporting secure customer programs (preferred).
  • Experience aligning engineering execution with commercial production SLAs and program-specific requirements, deliverables, or milestones (preferred).
  • Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, protected individual, or otherwise eligible for required U.S. government export-control authorizations.

Benefits

  • Medical, dental, vision, disability, group term life and AD&D, and voluntary life and AD&D insurance.
  • BlackSky pays 100% of employee-only medical, dental, and vision premiums and contributes $100/month toward out-of-pocket expenses.
  • 15 days of PTO, 11 company holidays, four floating holidays, one day of paid volunteer leave per year, and parental leave.
  • 401(k) pre-tax and Roth deferral options with employer match.
  • Flexible spending accounts.
  • Employee stock purchase program.
  • Employee assistance and travel assistance programs.
  • Professional development support.

Interested in this position?

Apply directly on the company website

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