Embedded Software Engineer
San Francisco, CA

Job Description

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 decision-makers 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 and machine learning-powered analytics to develop new technologies, drive revenue, power research, and solve our world's toughest challenges.

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 are iterating 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.

The Role:

As a member of our Flight Software Team you will be supporting our High-Resolution Skysat satellite constellation. This includes developing new Flight Software Loads that add features or solve problems encountered in space by our existing fleet. This includes everything from the guidance computer and distributed telemetry system, to the payload system. You will also be working on new satellite hardware and designs to help Planet achieve its future missions!

As a member of the Flight Software Team, we expect you to make excellent technical decisions in the context of system-wide engineering trade-offs. You should be willing to deliver top-quality software while using excellent software engineering standards and practices.

The Responsibilities:

* Work with other members of the Flight Software Team to generate new Flight Software Loads for the Skysat satellites
* Build and maintain software tools to support the satellite test rack and production environment
* Work with Skysat satellite operations to understand telemetry and improve satellite performance and efficiency where possible.
* Collaborate in cross-functional teams to validate and improve existing and future satellite systems
* Debug on-orbit anomalies for the Skysat fleet and provide fault tree/root cause analysis

The Must-Haves:

* Proven history of thinking through complex, interdisciplinary problems and debugging to identify and correct root causes
* 3-5 years of programming experience in C. Ideally, development for microcontrollers and/or low-level Linux applications
* Experience with Python
* Strong background in Linux, with embedded Linux being a plus
* Experience with system validation that includes embedded software and/or remote systems
* Comfortable with common open-source development tools (GCC, make) in a Linux environment.
* Proponent of continuous integration and automated testing
* Experience with DVCS such as git or mercurial

The Nice-to-Haves:

* Experience with previous aerospace projects or cubesats!
* Familiarity with FreeRTOS, QNX or other RTOS solutions
* Experience in the mobile, networking, medical, robotics, IoT, or similar embedded device industries
* Experience with some some of our key technical areas, such as cameras or other image sensors, high-speed radio communication, FPGA development, or guidance, navigation and control.
* Knowledge of industry standards for software quality practices.
* Experience building embedded OS distributions.
* Contribution to open source projects, especially small-device or similar.
* Cool side projects, great life stories, robot owners

Some press about us:

Our CEO, Will Marshall's TED Talk

"Tiny Satellites ushering in the New Space Revolution" Bloomberg Businessweek

"The All-Seeing Eye in the Sky video" Bloomberg Businessweek video

"Planet And Rocket Lab Create Mission Patch To Honor Women In Aerospace" -Planet Blog

Join Us:

Planet is headquartered in San Francisco, California, Earth. If you are feeling inspired, check out our website www.planet.com/careers and apply. Be sure to include a cover letter to let us know why you think you'd be a good fit and feel free to mention anyone you have previously worked with at Planet.

We are committed to building a diverse team and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds.