Director, Application Engineering

As the Director of Application Engineering, you will lead a team of engineers to develop, test, and implement platform-based applications that surface mission-critical data and analytics solutions to give satellite operators the clarity they need to maximize mission success and safety. You will be responsible for leading the successful execution of team strategic objectives aligned with company strategic plans. You will collaborate with key stakeholders to prioritize work and facilitate team execution to achieve technical milestones.  

• Executes all position responsibilities in alignment with Slingshot’s core values, mission, and purpose
• Regularly communicate clear roles, goals and expectations for team members; promote a culture of feedback and accountability 
• Foster a culture of personal and professional growth
• Leverage our leadership and management competencies to develop, lead and inspire a diverse, high-performing team
• Translate business objectives into the development of new products, services or processes
• Collaborate effectively with product managers, program managers, project managers, and science/technology teams to successfully execute on strategic objectives and product roadmaps
• Act as the subject matter expert for application engineering, provide ongoing guidance and support to team members, and lead the direction of growth for the team’s technical competencies
• Support or lead activities to secure external funding that advance Slingshot’s product roadmap via tech-enabled services, such as by supporting proposal development activities
• Work with other directors and stakeholders to determine strategy; act as a key advisor to senior leadership, and advocate for the needs of your team
• Lead the software development lifecycle, from idea creation, planning, development, all the way through to deployment and productionalized support of the applications developed and maintained by the team
• Support recruiting and hiring activities by being an active member in the interview process and by providing inputs with respect to staffing needs
• Perform other duties as assigned (to be less than 10% of the responsibilities listed above)

• You must be a U.S. citizen and eligible for government clearances

• 15+ years of experience in software and application development
• 5+ years experience leading a team in an agile development environment, including technical leadership in projects, product development, etc.
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field, with a record of academic excellence
• Experience building enterprise-level applications that work with real-time data under real-world conditions
• Experience developing data-centric applications that leverage a common cloud-based infrastructure
• Demonstrated ability to explain complex technical concepts in discourse (written and oral) to broader audiences
• Basic knowledge of the space environment and orbital mechanics, including knowledge of the data products associated with the tracking of space objects

• Graduate degree in computer science, engineering, or a related field
• Knowledge and prior experience with Program Management and Product Management
• Knowledge and prior experience in software development for scientific computing applications
• Knowledge and prior experience with QA best practices for production software systems
• Ability to influence the development of new technologies that can be translated into profitable, market-leading products and services
• Familiarity with data platforms, microservices, and streaming data systems
• Experience working with DoD, Intelligence Community, and/or other US Government customers
• Early-stage data-centric startup experience
• Experience with the following:
• Containerization technologies, such as Docker and Kubernetes (K8s) or similar
• REST APIs and GraphQL including subscriptions and event-driven applications
• UX/UX processes and tools, from low to high fidelity and clickable prototypes
• 3D visualization frameworks such as three.js
• Authentication and authorization concepts and standards such as OpenID Connect, RBAC, ABAC, ReBAC
• Database use and application programming with both SQL and NoSQL systems, in particular PostgreSQL and MongoDB or similar database systems
• Cloud-based distributed systems and platforms
• AWS services such as EKS Lambda, Fargate, VPC, API Gateway, CloudWatch, CloudTrail, RDS, S3, etc. including in GovCloud regions
• Programming languages such as Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Java/Kotlin 
• Security and compliance frameworks such as NIST RMF, 800-53 and deployment to classified environments
• Experience in setting up systems to monitor applications and user activities through dashboards such as Datadog or Grafana  

*These skills are guidelines, not hard and fast rules. You don’t have to meet every qualification listed- if your skills are transferable and you meet the minimum requirements, we encourage you to apply. 

Location: Remote

Pay Range: $230,000-$275,000

Classification: Full time Exempt (executive exemption)

Equity, Diversity & Inclusion are key to our success. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and our employees are people with different strengths, experiences and backgrounds, who share a passion for creating a safer, more connected world. Diversity not only includes race and gender identity, but also age, disability status, veteran status, sexual orientation, religion and many other parts of one’s identity. All of our employee’s points of view are key to our success, and we embrace individuality.