Senior Software Engineer

Welcome to Planet. We believe in using space to help life on Earth.

Planet designs, builds, and operates the largest constellation of imaging satellites in history. This constellation delivers an unprecedented dataset of empirical information via a revolutionary cloud-based platform to authoritative figures in commercial, environmental, and humanitarian sectors. We are both a space company and data company all rolled into one.

Customers and users across the globe use Planet's data to develop new technologies, drive revenue, power research, and solve our world's toughest obstacles.

As we control every component of hardware design, manufacturing, data processing, and software engineering, our office is a truly inspiring mix of experts from a variety of domains.

We have a people-centric approach toward culture and community and we strive to iterate in a way that puts our team members first and prepares our company for growth. Join Planet and be a part of our mission to change the way people see the world.

Planet is a global company with employees working remotely world wide and joining us from offices in San Francisco, Washington DC, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, and The Netherlands.

About the Role:  

We are seeking a talented Senior Software Engineer with expertise in designing, developing and deploying machine learning solutions at scale to join our team. This role is at the intersection of machine learning (ML), software engineering, and remote sensing, focusing on building innovative systems that extract actionable insights from satellite imagery for applications in agriculture, forestry, climate, land management and more. Our projects include mapping crop activities, detecting land changes, measuring forest carbon stocks, roads, buildings and other topics at the intersection of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and Earth Observation. You'll join a passionate, innovative, and distributed team that values collaboration and fosters a culture of continuous learning and impact-driven engineering.

In this role, you will work with a team to design, develop and deploy robust, scalable machine learning workflows and integrate them into distributed systems for real-world applications. You will help build tools to analyze remote sensing data from diverse sources to extract actionable insights. Your work will involve designing and enhancing machine learning infrastructure for training, evaluation, and inference on global-scale datasets, ensuring performance and reliability. You will help build connections to other internal systems, making sure the interfaces are stable, secure and reliable. You will contribute to both high- and low-level end-to-end system development, including backend and API design, with occasional involvement in front-end and DevOps tasks to ensure seamless functionality of geospatial applications. Collaboration will be key as you work closely with a distributed team of scientists, engineers, and clients across Europe and North America, incorporating feedback to refine and enhance products. You will also establish and maintain machine learning operations workflows to monitor and optimize the performance of deployed models. 

This is a full-time, hybrid role which will require you to work from our Ljubljana or Haarlem office 3 days per week.

Impact You'll Own:

• Scalable infrastructure: Design and improve ML infrastructure for training, evaluation, and inference on global-scale datasets, ensuring high performance and reliability.
• End-to-end system development: Contribute to full-stack development, from backend and APIs to front-end and DevOps tasks, enabling seamless integration and functionality of geospatial applications.
• Collaborative innovation: Work closely with a distributed team of scientists, engineers, and clients across Europe and North America, incorporating feedback to refine products and processes.
• ML Ops: Establish and maintain machine learning operations workflows to monitor and enhance deployed models' performance over time.

What You Bring:

• Bachelor's degree in Software Engineering/Computer Science or related discipline 
• 6+ years of relevant work experience
• Experience engineering in Python/Java/Go and/or similar programming languages
• Experience delivering production-grade machine learning systems at scale, with a focus on real-world applications.
• Experience with MLOps workflows to monitor, maintain, and optimize deployed machine learning models.
• Problem-solving skills and ability to iterate based on feedback from clients or partners.
• Experience with end-to-end system design, including backend development, database management, and occasional front-end contributions.
• Knowledge of computer vision and time-series modeling techniques, applied to real-world datasets.
• Ability to work effectively in a collaborative, cross-disciplinary, and distributed team environment.
• Ability to communicate in English, the working language of the company

What Makes You Stand Out:

• Experience in ML and Dev Ops
• Familiarity in remote sensing and geospatial data processing, including handling dense temporal satellite imagery.

Application Deadline: February, 16th, :59pm PST

Benefits While Working at Planet:

These offerings are dependent on employment type and geographical location, based upon applicable law or company policy.

• Paid time off including vacation, holidays and company-wide days off 
• Employee Wellness Program 
• Home Office Reimbursement
• Monthly Phone and Internet Reimbursement
• Tuition Reimbursement and access to LinkedIn Learning
• Equity 
• Volunteering Paid Time Off

Why we care so much about Belonging. 
We're dedicated to helping the whole Planet, and to do that we must strive to represent all of it within each of our offices and on all of our teams. That's why Planet is guided by an ultimate north star of Belonging—dreaming big as we approach our ongoing work.  If this job intrigues you, but you're thinking you might not have all the qualifications, please... do apply  At Planet, we are looking for well-rounded people from around the world who can contribute to more ways than just what is listed in this job description.  We don't just fill positions, we aspire to fulfill people's careers, most excited about folks who are motivated by our underlying humanitarian efforts.  We are a few orbits around the sun before we get to where we want to be, so we hope you're excited to come along for the ride. 

EEO statement:
Planet is committed to building a community where everyone belongs and we invite people from all backgrounds to apply. Planet is an equal opportunity employer, and 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 or contact your recruiter with your request. Your message will be confidential and we will be happy to assist you.

Privacy Policy: By clicking "Apply Now" at the top of this job posting, I acknowledge that I have read the Planet Data Privacy Notice for California Staff Members and Applicants, and hereby consent to the collection, processing, use, and storage of my personal information as described therein.

Privacy Policy (European Applicants): By clicking "Apply Now" at the top of this job posting, I acknowledge that I have read the Candidate Privacy Notice GDPR Planet Labs Europe, and hereby consent to the collection, processing, use, and storage of my personal information as described therein.

AI in Our Interviewing Process: Planet is committed to providing an exceptional interview experience for all candidates. We are currently exploring AI interviewing technologies to better focus on candidates and less on trying to capture notes. As such, with the candidate's consent, select interviews may be recorded and include a Planet AI Notetaker for transcription and summarization purposes. Should an interview involve use of AI interview technologies, the candidate will receive notification and have the ability to opt out both in advance and/or real-time. Opting out will not affect one's candidacy.