Ground and Control Services, Software Engineering Manager
About Us:
BlackSky is a real-time intelligence company. We own and operate the world's most advanced space-based intelligence platform and provide customers satellite imagery, automated analytics and high-frequency monitoring of strategic locations, economic assets and events from around the globe. BlackSky is trusted by the most demanding allied military and intelligence organizations and commercial companies to deliver foresight into critical matters that affect national security and the economy. BlackSky's data enables governments and businesses to see, understand and anticipate change as it happens, giving them the ultimate strategic advantage so they can act quickly. Our global team works with cutting-edge technology to make a difference around the world and prides itself on being people-first, customer-focused and fun.
The Ground & Control Services (GCS) team is seeking a thoughtful and technically strong Engineering Manager to lead the group responsible for building the autonomous systems that control and monitor BlackSky’s satellite constellation. This team owns high‑speed tasking, ground and space telemetry, health monitoring, and low‑latency communication with ground stations worldwide. As the GCS Manager, you will guide the engineers who design, build, and operate software that bridges hardware‑level interfaces with cloud‑deployed microservices—software that keeps our satellites healthy, safe, and responsive 24/7.
In this role, you’ll provide technical direction, build healthy engineering processes, and cultivate a culture of curiosity, safety, and ownership. You will partner with mission operations, spacecraft engineering, product teams, and program leadership to ensure the team consistently meets both commercial production goals and program‑driven requirements. This includes balancing long‑term reliability with rapid iteration, supporting operational readiness for live constellation needs, and delivering capabilities aligned with customer commitments and program milestones.
You’ll help your team reason about complex autonomous systems where reliability matters as much as performance, and you’ll play a key part in scaling our constellation as we grow. Success in this role means enabling your team to deliver high-quality, dependable software; ensuring operational excellence; communicating effectively across disciplines; and supporting engineers in developing their careers while fostering a collaborative, mission-focused environment.
This role reports to the Director, Ground Apps and Services and is strongly preferred to be in the Seattle, WA area.
Who you are:
- An effective people manager who is excited to guide, coach, and scale a team.
- A technical leader who can provide clear architectural direction while empowering engineers to make informed decisions and grow their expertise.
- An organized planner who can translate evolving priorities into clear roadmaps, break work into actionable tasks, and drive predictable execution.
- A collaborator who has experience partnering with cross functional teams across an organization.
- A dependable executor who drives clear priorities, sets realistic expectations, and ensures the team delivers high‑quality results consistently.
- A culture builder who values collaboration, inclusivity, psychological safety, and continuous improvement — and actively models those behaviors.
Responsibilities:
- Lead, mentor, and grow the Ground & Control Services engineering team responsible for autonomous satellite operations, real‑time tasking, and ground‑to‑space communications.
- Work with leadership to drive prioritization and planning across GCS projects with dynamically changing commercial and program objectives, ensuring engineering efforts stay aligned with business goals, customer commitments, and mission operations.
- Partner with operations, communication engineering, flight software, mission planning, product, and program leadership to clarify requirements, align priorities, and maintain a strong end‑to‑end understanding of system behavior.
- Provide technical direction and architectural guidance for systems interfacing with ground stations, satellite communication protocols, and mission‑critical operational workflows.
- Establish and continuously improve engineering processes including design reviews, code reviews, testing practices, system safety considerations, and operational readiness.
- Foster a healthy on-call culture and ensure effective support of live operational systems, including incident response, root‑cause analysis, and long-term corrective actions.
- Drive roadmap planning, resource allocation, and execution across multiple projects, balancing rapid iteration with long‑term reliability and availability.
- Hire, onboard, coach, and evaluate engineers, emphasizing skill development, collaboration, and accountability.
- Perform other leadership tasks as required to ensure the success of the team and mission.
- Other responsibilities as assigned.
Required Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
- A minimum of eight (8) years of professional experience in software engineering, including experience building or operating complex distributed, autonomous, or mission‑critical systems.
- At least two (2) years of experience leading engineering teams as a people manager or technical lead with formal leadership responsibilities.
- Strong technical background in one or more programming languages (e.g., Go, Python, C++), with the ability to provide architectural guidance and review complex designs.
- Experience developing and deploying microservices in cloud environments (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure) and on-premises Kubernetes‑based systems.
- Solid understanding of CI/CD pipelines, automated testing strategies, version control, and operational best practices.
- Demonstrated ability to manage priorities, coordinate across teams, and deliver results in fast-paced environments with operational dependencies.
- Excellent communication, collaboration, and conflict‑resolution skills, especially in cross‑functional settings.
- Some programs this role supports may require the candidate to be a U.S. citizen.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Master’s degree (or higher) in a relevant technical field.
- Ten or more years of professional engineering experience, including leadership of teams responsible for high-availability or mission-critical software.
- Experience managing teams working with infrastructure‑as‑code tools (e.g., Terraform, Ansible), container orchestration (e.g., Kubernetes, Nomad), or distributed systems.
- Knowledge of system safety, fault tolerance, redundancy, and recovery strategies in autonomous or operationally sensitive environments.
- Background in satellite operations, ground stations, or aerospace domains (e.g., X‑Band, UHF, telemetry), or experience supporting secure customer programs.
- Prior experience aligning engineering execution with both commercial production SLAs and program‑specific requirements, deliverables, or milestones.
Life at BlackSky for full-time benefits-eligible employees includes:
- Medical, dental, vision, disability, group term life and AD&D, voluntary life and AD&D insurance
- BlackSky pays 100% of employee-only premiums for medical, dental and vision and contributes $100/month for out-of-pocket expenses!
- 15 days of PTO, 11 Company holidays, four Floating Holidays (pro-rated based on hire date), one day of paid volunteerism leave per year, parental leave and more
- 401(k) pre-tax and Roth deferral options with employer match
- Flexible Spending Accounts
- Employee Stock Purchase Program
- Employee Assistance and Travel Assistance Programs
- Employer matching donations
- Professional development
- Mac or PC? Your choice!
- Awesome swag
The anticipated salary range for candidates in Seattle, WA is $165,000-205,000 per year. The final compensation package offered to a successful candidate will be dependent on specific background and education. BlackSky is a multi-state employer, and this pay scale may not reflect salary ranges in other states or locations outside of Seattle, WA.
BlackSky is committed to hiring and retaining a diverse workforce. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer All Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.
To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.
EEO/AAP/ Pay Transparency Statements: https://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/posters/pdf/eeopost.pdf
https://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/posters/pdf/OFCCP_EEO_Supplement_Final_JRF_QA_508c.pdf
