Associate, Space Operations
Planet
About The Role
The Space Operations team is crucial to Planet's success, responsible for maintaining and optimizing the health and productivity of the world's largest Earth Observation satellite constellation. Given the scale of our fleet, automation is at the heart of our operations. You'll develop and maintain critical software, transforming large datasets into actionable metrics. As an Associate in Space Operations, you'll support daily satellite operations, analyze data, triage and resolve anomalies, run on-orbit experiments, test and deploy software both on the ground and in orbit, and commission satellites. This is a part-time, temporary role which is expected to last 12 months. This is a hybrid position which will require you to work from our San Francisco office 3 days per week.
Impact You'll Own
- Develop and maintain real-time, mission-critical software solutions for satellite operations
- Support daily fleet checks, including identifying, triaging, and resolving satellite anomalies
- Write scripts to aggregate satellite data and generate system monitoring metrics
- Test and deploy flight software upgrades, debug satellite anomalies, and perform on-orbit experiments
- Create and maintain operational procedures
Requirements & Tech Stack
- Actively enrolled in an accredited university programme
- Software development experience, particularly in Python or similar languages
- Familiarity with the space environment and its challenges
- Data-driven mindset with experience in statistical analysis
- Effective interpersonal and collaboration skills within a technical team
- Self-starter that proactively tackles problems and brings in their own ideas
- Comfortable working in a dynamic environment
What Makes You Stand Out
- Understanding of space environment and space operations
- Proficiency in DevOps tools and practices (e.g., Git, GitLab, Docker, Jenkins, Bash, Linux, CI/CD, Sentry, Datadog)
- Practical expertise in data analysis for problem-solving
- Familiarity with automation and optimization tools
- Contributions to open-source software projects