Senior Flight Software Engineer, Development Infrastructure

Planet Labs

  • San Francisco, CA
  • Permanent
  • Full-time
  • 1 month ago
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:Planet's Flight Software Team is responsible for all of the embedded software complexity that goes into our fleet of Superdove, Skysat, Pelican, and Tanager satellites. The software we build and maintain spans many functional verticals including navigation and avionics, payload control, radio software, and supporting tooling and infrastructure. We work collaboratively with many other teams at Planet, including the Payload, EE, RF, Ground Software, and Missions teams, to deliver reliable and innovative solutions that ensure the success of Planet's missions.Supporting this software requires robust, scalable internal infrastructure to enable development, testing, and deployment across a wide range of embedded systems. As a Senior Infrastructure Engineer joining Planet's Flight Software team, you will drive the design, implementation, and maintenance of critical internal-facing systems that ensure the reliability, efficiency, and scalability of our team's embedded software and associated development processes. You will own tools and systems that accelerate our team's development and improve our software quality, from build systems and continuous integration pipelines to hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing frameworks and their associated hardware infrastructure. By taking a data-driven approach, you will expose critical metrics that highlight system performance, codebase health, and development efficiency, enabling iterative improvements. Your high-leverage contributions will empower our team's engineers to deliver embedded software that meets strict performance and reliability requirements, supporting Planet's broader mission to deliver insights that change how we see the world. Ideal candidates are passionate about observability-both in the end product and in the toolchain, CI, and test ecosystem.This is a full-time, hybrid role which will require you to work from our San Francisco HQ 3 days per week.Impact You'll Own:
  • Design, implement, and maintain robust build systems and continuous integration pipelines to accelerate development and ensure software reliability.
  • Help develop, optimize, deploy, and maintain automated HIL test fixtures to validate embedded software against real hardware platforms.
  • Lead root cause investigations for infrastructure issues and improve reliability across development, test, and deployment systems.
  • Partner with other Flight Software engineers to identify and implement tools, abstractions, and workflows that improve developer efficiency and system performance.
  • Evaluate, recommend, and integrate new technologies and tools to streamline embedded software development and deployment.
  • Collaborate closely with engineers to refine workflows and infrastructure, ensuring alignment with Planet's operational and development goals.
What You Bring:
  • Bachelor's degree in CS, CE, EE, or a related field.
  • 6+ years of professional experience in software development and/or software operations, with some exposure to software targeting embedded systems
  • Expertise in designing, implementing, and maintaining build systems, particularly for embedded projects, using tools such as Cmake, SCons, GNU Autotools, Bazel, etc.
  • Hands-on experience with CI/CD pipelines, including configuration, optimization, troubleshooting, and observability.
  • Experience with managing deployment configurations using tools such as Ansible, Chef, Puppet, Salt, etc.
  • Advanced in scripting languages such as Python, Bash, and similar for automation.
  • Proficiency with containerization technologies like Docker or lxc for isolating development and test environments.
  • Ability to investigate and resolve complex infrastructure issues across software and hardware components.
  • Excellent communication skills, including the ability to explain infrastructure concepts and tradeoff spaces to a variety of stakeholders.
  • Professional experience working under Agile development using the Git version control system.
What Makes You Stand Out:
  • Extensive experience building and maintaining HIL test frameworks for embedded software validation.
  • Experience owning the development infrastructure for a large development team, spanning build, CI, component verification, and release management
  • Deep understanding of embedded software development workflows, including cross-compilation, debugging, and hardware validation.
  • Proficiency in managing and troubleshooting build systems for complex embedded systems, with a focus on scalability and developer efficiency.
  • Expertise in designing, deploying, and optimizing containerized systems to support large-scale CI/CD workflows and embedded software validation.
  • Demonstrated excellence debugging tricky embedded, cross-functional systems bugs.
  • Hands-on experience with hardware debugging tools such as logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, and protocol analyzers to validate hardware-software interactions.
  • Ability to drive interdisciplinary collaboration and provide technical leadership across teams.
  • Hands-on experience with rackmount IT hardware such as Ethernet switches, 1U servers, PDUs, IPKVM appliances, and the like.
  • Experience working with EEs to triage boards.
Application Deadline:October 22, 2025 by 11:59 PM PDTEAR/ITAR Requirements:This position requires access to export-controlled information, and as such, employment (or hiring of a contractor) is contingent upon the candidate's ability to access all applicable export-controlled information without additional export licensing being required by the Bureau of Industry and Security and/or the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls.Benefits While Working at Planet:These offerings are dependent on employment type and geographical location, based upon applicable law or company policy.
  • 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 listed below. Additionally, this role might be eligible for discretionary short-term and long-term incentives (bonus and equity). The final salary range is determined by job related experience, skills and location. The range displays our typical hiring range for new hire salaries in US locations only. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your preferred location during the hiring process.San Francisco Salary Range$162,600—$203,200 USDWhy 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.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 accommodations@planet.com 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.

Planet Labs