[Hiring] Ground and Control Services, Software Engineering Manager @BlackSky

Role Description

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.
• Provide technical direction, build healthy engineering processes, and cultivate a culture of curiosity, safety, and ownership.
• 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.
• Help your team reason about complex autonomous systems where reliability matters as much as performance.
• Enable your team to deliver high-quality, dependable software; ensure operational excellence; communicate effectively across disciplines; and support engineers in developing their careers.

This role reports to the Director, Ground Apps and Services and is strongly preferred to be in the Seattle, WA area.

Qualifications

• 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.

Requirements

• 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.

Benefits

• 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.