Flight Software Engineer

About the Role:

Planet's Flight Software Team is responsible for all of the embedded software that powers our diverse fleet of Superdove, Skysat, Pelican, and Tanager satellites. The software we build and maintain deploys to orbiting spacecraft hundreds of kilometers away and spans many functional verticals, including navigation and avionics, payload control, radio software, onboard autonomy, and supporting tooling and infrastructure. We collaborate closely with many other teams at Planet, including the Payload, EE, RF, Ground Software, and Missions teams, to deliver reliable and innovative solutions that ensure the success of Planet's missions.

As a Flight Software Engineer at Planet, you will play a key role in the definition, development, maintenance, and optimization of this critical software. Our mission is to create seamless, intuitive systems that enable spacecraft operators, analysts, and engineers at Planet to interact reliably with our assets in space. We strive to minimize operational burden and automate all aspects of satellite operations. In this role, you will solve a wide range of complex engineering challenges in a dynamic environment.

You will design and implement new APIs, refine existing ones, and evaluate and select appropriate software technologies for given use cases. You will own and conduct root cause analyses which may cross software components as well as hardware domains; at times the target you're debugging will be hundreds of kilometers away with limited bandwidth and periodic windows for communication. You will help design and deploy critical infrastructure, ensuring it meets operational demands and scales effectively to support Planet's evolving missions. Finally, you will collaborate with operators and other key stakeholders to iteratively refine these systems, ensuring they meet today's needs while advancing Planet's broader mission to deliver insights that change how we see the world.

This is a full time, hybrid role which will require you to be in our San Francisco office 3 days per week.

Impact You'll Own:

• Independently own root cause investigations for complex bugs and implement robust fixes across our embedded targets, including bare-metal, RTOS, and Linux-based application code.
• Design, implement, and test new features and software components for new and existing satellite platforms with minimal guidance from technical leads.
• Analyze system performance and propose/implement software improvements to enhance fleet robustness, efficiency, and capability.
• Work with stakeholders and other engineers to define specifications, develop clear component APIs, and produce comprehensive tests and documentation for the software you own.

What You Bring:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
• 4+ years of professional software development experience, with solid proficiency in C or C++ for embedded systems (RTOS or bare-metal).
• Experience with Python for scripting, testing, and data analysis.
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to explain technical concepts to a variety of stakeholders such as engineers, satellite operators, and engineering project managers.
• Professional experience working under agile development using the Git version control system.
• Familiarity with common hardware communication protocols such as UART, SPI, or I2C.

What Makes You Stand Out:

• Experience in multiple programming languages and operating systems.
• Linux/Unix systems programming experience such as memory-mapped files, network protocol development, process memory management, etc.
• Direct experience with RTOS and bare metal development on ARM microcontrollers (e.g., STM32).
• Experience writing software for FPGA softcores, RISC-V or otherwise.
• Experience developing or deploying applications for edge computing, such as onboard data processing or machine learning inference.
• Experience with containerization technologies like Docker/lxc.

Application Deadline:

May 15, 2026 at 11:59p PT

EAR/ITAR Requirements:

This position requires access to export-controlled information, and as such, employment (or hiring of a contractor) is contingent upon the candidate's ability to access all applicable export-controlled information without additional export licensing being required by the Bureau of Industry and Security and/or the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls.

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

Compensation:

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.