Senior Engineer, Mission Planning

BlackSky · Seattle, WA ; Herndon, VA ; Remote-US

  • Senior
  • Full-time
  • $120,000 – $145,000
  • Posted 2026-10-08
  • Confirmed live on 13 October 2026

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Job description

Senior Engineer, Mission Planning

About Us:

BlackSky is a real-time intelligence company. We own and operate the world's most advanced space-based intelligence platform and provide customers satellite imagery, automated analytics and high-frequency monitoring of strategic locations, economic assets and events from around the globe. BlackSky is trusted by the most demanding allied military and intelligence organizations and commercial companies to deliver foresight into critical matters that affect national security and the economy. BlackSky's data enables governments and businesses to see, understand and anticipate change as it happens, giving them the ultimate strategic advantage so they can act quickly. Our global team works with cutting-edge technology to make a difference around the world and prides itself on being people-first, customer-focused and fun.

BlackSky is looking for a strong, self-starting and eager engineer to join our Mission Planning Engineering team. This integrated product team is working to develop and maintain optimized autonomous operations for the BlackSky constellation. The Mission Planning Team works closely with the Mission Management SW Development team: Mission Planners own requirements documentation, initial scope and design documentation, and will lead SW feature development efforts by writing prototype code and/or written system level requirements which are executable by the SW development team. Strong candidates will have deep mission planning algorithm design experience, specifically for satellite or aerial imaging applications. Prior experience with different types of image planning logic, such as point targets, strip mapping, or pushbroom scanning or equivalent experience with time assignment problems is essential. The candidate should have solid experience in developing both prototype code and software system requirements.

In this role, you will develop and track system level requirements, schedules, and technical implementation for a wide variety of mission planning products and see them through to operation on orbit. Opportunities will exist for prototype code development in Python or Go, as well as internal tooling development for measuring KPIs, troubleshooting performance problems, and identifying and correcting inefficiencies in planning algorithms. While the primary responsibility of this hire will be to define system level and software requirements and prototype code, a strong background in production level software or embedded systems experience in spacecraft or autonomous vehicles will be valuable.

We have offices in Herndon, VA and Seattle, WA but are open to remote candidates.

Responsibilities:

• Contribute to mission planning integrated product team, interfacing with mission planning, ground software, and operations and product engineers to plan and execute autonomous constellation operations software features.

• Model, implement, and test concepts of operation for autonomous planning of various constellation activities including imaging, system calibration, propulsion, or other critical activities. This may involve leveraging heritage or building novel algorithms, as well developing new problem formulations to optimize image capture planning while respecting various other constraints and activities.

• Model satellite subsystems (communications, power, attitude) using methods that are compatible with existing and future ground and control software algorithms as needed to support Mission Planning functions.

• Support ongoing constellation operations and customer fulfillment efforts as a mission planning subject matter expert.

• Translate product concepts to engineering requirements and facilitate review and discussion among engineering, product and software stakeholders.

• Occasional 24/7 support expected during Launch and Early Operations or Anomaly Response in support of debugging and fixing mission planning algorithms.

• Other relevant duties assigned.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree or higher in one of the following fields: 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, shipping/delivery logistics 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 or inefficiencies in your current field of expertise.

• Possess strong team and inter-team cooperat

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