Software Engineer, Platform Operations (Washington)

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 Planets 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:

A Software Engineer in Platform Operations is responsible for helping design, build, and operate the core infrastructure that enables Planets engineering teams to reliably deploy and scale their services with minimal friction. This role is a key contributor to the evolution of our modern cloud-native platform, focusing on security, scalability, and reliability. This position will work as part of a team that partners with software engineers across the organization to refine and improve the deployment and operational experience. The ideal candidate is excited by the opportunity to enable software engineering at scale and provide internal users a batteries included infrastructure experience through our internal developer platform.

This is a full-time, remote position based in the United States. If located near an office, you are expected to work from that office 3 days per week.

Impact You'll Own:

* Design and implement core Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC) solutions to ensure the secure and scalable operation of Planets services.

* Actively work on major platform modernization initiatives, including the full migration from legacy tooling to new solutions.

* Manage cloud-based infrastructure services, notably our fleet of Kubernetes clusters, and associated tooling to meet internal needs and support customer-facing service level agreements.

* Enhance and maintain observability for key platform services, leveraging Grafana and other tools to establish Service Level Objectives (SLOs) and improve operational readiness.

* Implement improvements and features for core systems owned by the team, such as GKE clusters, public API gateway, and other managed infrastructure solutions.

* Collaborate with software engineering teams to refine the developer experience (DevEx) of our managed infrastructure.

What You Bring:

* 4+ years of experience in a Platform Engineering, System Administration, DevOps, or Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) role.

* Deep understanding of Kubernetes, underlying compute systems, and Linux

* Working knowledge of public clouds, particularly Google Cloud Platform (GCP) or Amazon Web Services (AWS).

* Experience with CI/CD tools (e.g. GitLab, ArgoCD), Configuration Management (e.g. Terraform, Crossplane) and GitOps principles.

* Ability to use an operational mindset and troubleshooting prowess for complex production environments.

* Experience building services in languages such as Go and Python using tools like Git, Docker, and CI/CD workflows.

* Experience building services that leverage cloud-based infrastructure and tooling such as AWS or GCP.

* Ability to collaborate and clearly communicate designs and decisions verbally and in writing.

What Makes You Stand Out:

* Experience in the operational management and development of core platform systems or open-source infrastructure projects.

* Experience with maintaining highly available or operationally resilient infrastructure at very large scales or across multiple clouds.

* Practical experience with networking and network architectures as it relates to platform infrastructure.

* Experience with Observability tools and best practices.

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

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.

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