Senior Software Engineer, Internal Developer Experience

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, and The Netherlands.

About the Role:  

The Platform Engineering pillar is dedicated to enabling service performance and developer efficiency through a comprehensive internal “platform as a service”. As part of Platform Engineering, the Internal Developer Experience team ensures our internal platform not only performs as expected but is optimized for frictionless use by software teams. As a Senior Software Engineer, you will be a steward and a “voice of the Planet software engineer” for developer-facing tools. The ideal candidate is excited by the opportunity to enable software engineering at scale and empower developers to do great work on a purpose-built platform.

Impact You’ll Own:

• Building platforms that provide Planet developers confidence in operating their applications.
• Fostering greater consistency of engineering practices across software teams, and providing “golden paths” to support those practices.
• Creating and sustaining developer experiences that promote quality, speed, and joy.
• Building and maintaining “core services” that support/enable customer-facing services in a reusable way.
• Full service ownership by authoring runbooks, measuring performance, creating alerts, being on call, and responding to incidents and performance anomalies.

What You Bring:

Here's a collection of some of the skills we value. Don't be discouraged if your strengths lie in particular areas more than others: that's what a team is for!

• Demonstrated capability as an individual contributor to build and maintain an internal developer platform that minimizes friction in building and deploying software.
• Experience building, deploying, and maintaining a set of software services written in Golang or Python.
• Passion for identifying opportunities to improve practices, explore solution options, and socializing ideas with colleagues toward fostering common cause.
• Desire to help colleagues use new tools and practices that reduce friction in deployment and operation of their services.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, written and oral.

What Makes You Stand Out:

• Pride in “being glue” and doing work behind the scenes to keep a team moving forward.
• Experience building and fostering adoption of observability tools, especially Prometheus and Grafana.
• Experience deploying software as containers to VMs and Kubernetes clusters, and familiarity with building reference implementations that support “golden paths” for software engineers.

Benefits While Working at Planet:

• Comprehensive Health Plan
• Wellness program and onsite massages in specific offices
• Flexible Time Off
• Recognition Programs
• Commuter Benefits
• Learning and Tuition Reimbursement
• Parental Leave
• Offsites and Happy Hours
• Volunteering Benefits

Some Press About Us: 

Our CEO, Will Marshall featured on TED and featured in a Planet Blog

“Planet: Bringing Space Back Down to Earth”

Tiny, privately owned satellites are changing how we view the Earth features in NBC News

“Planet And Rocket Lab Create Mission Patch To Honor Women In Aerospace” —Planet Blog

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 with diversity, equity and inclusion.  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 interview process, please call Planet's front office at 669-214-9404 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.

Compensation (only applicable for Colorado applicants):

The base pay range targeted for this position in Colorado is: $116,100 - $187,200. This role is eligible for equity.

The actual offer, including the compensation package, is determined based on multiple factors, including experience, location, and other business considerations.

Planet is registered as an employer in many, but not all, states. If you are not able to work from a state where Planet is registered, you will not be eligible for employment.