Senior Director of Engineering - Civil Government and Commercial

Welcome to Planet. We believe in using space to help life on Earth. 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 Planet's 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

We are seeking an experienced engineering leader to become our Senior Director of Engineering for Civil Government and Commercial. In this role, you will lead the engineering strategy, execution, and team development for a rapidly growing organization of 70+ engineers spanning multiple global Planet offices. You will oversee the development, scaling, and delivery of our critical existing solutions, including Area Monitoring Service (AMS) for EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) compliance, Disaster and Wildfire solutions, Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem (CDSE), and a portfolio of Derived Data Products. You will also drive our "zero to one" product discovery, partnering closely with Product Management, Design, and Science teams to incubate, architect, and launch new, emerging solutions built on top of Planet’s high-frequency imagery and derived data products. AI is central to how Planet builds solutions, and you will make it a primary way your teams discover, build, and deliver for customers. This position is vital to delivering innovative applications to civil governments and commercial customers worldwide. This is a full-time, hybrid role which will require you to work from our Berlin, Haarlem, or Ljubljana office 3 days per week. Impact You’ll Own: Lead, mentor, and scale a global engineering organization of 70+ engineers, managers, and directors across multiple geographies and time zones. Set a high bar for performance and accountability. Define measurable outcomes for every product and team, surface risks early and directly, and make the hard calls on people and priorities when results fall short. Drive the day-to-day engineering execution and delivery for existing flagship products, ensuring reliability and performance for AMS,

Disaster and Wildfire solutions, and the derived data portfolio. Champion and lead "zero to one" engineering discovery, building the technical foundation and prototypes for new emerging commercial and civil government products. Partner on a daily basis with Product Management, Design, and GTM teams to define product direction, prioritize feature development, and align technical strategy with business goals. Ensure systems are scalable, reliable, and secure for government and enterprise use, guiding architectural decisions and engineering best practices. Align your team's daily output with Planet’s mission of using space to help life on earth, directly enabling governments and businesses to make critical, timely decisions.

What You Bring

10+ years of relevant software engineering work experience, including 8+ years of supervisory or leadership experience managing multiple layers of engineering management. Experience leading and scaling distributed engineering teams of 50+ employees across multiple geographic locations and time zones. Hands-on engagement with AI tools in your own work, and experience leading engineering teams through AI adoption. Track record of "zero to one" product development, including the technical discovery, architecture, and successful launch of new software solutions. Background in building and delivering geospatial platforms, data analytics solutions, or enterprise SaaS products. Experience delivering tailored solutions to individual customers, meeting or exceeding their expectations and integrating new building blocks back into the solution commons. A growth mindset. You experiment, learn quickly, and change course when the evidence says to. Ability to collaborate with cross-functional partners to translate complex business and user requirements into actionable technical roadmaps. Experience overseeing operational reliability, cloud infrastructure, and software deployment lifecycles for enterprise-grade applications. Ability to drive software delivery metrics, maintain high operational availability/SLAs, and foster rigorous engineering practices. Ability to recruit, mentor, and retain engineering talent at all levels while fostering an inclusive team culture. Clear and effective written and verbal communication skills for engaging with both technical and non-technical stakeholders. What Makes You Stand Out: Success building large scale civil government solutions leveraging forward deployed engineering.

Familiarity with the unique regulatory, compliance, and security requirements of government technology solutions globally. Experience building sovereign systems for governments. Application Deadline: 11:45p / 23:45 CET on the date stated below. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. This posting may be removed earlier than projected if a suitable pool of applications has been received. For this reason, we recommend applying as soon as you are able to.

Benefits

While Working at Planet: These offerings are dependent on employment