Staff Software Engineer, Machine Learning Operations - Remote (Herndon, VA preferred)

About BlackSky

BlackSky is a real-time intelligence company operating the world's most advanced space-based intelligence platform. We provide satellite imagery, automated analytics, and high-frequency monitoring for strategic locations globally. Trusted by leading military, intelligence, and commercial organizations, BlackSky delivers foresight into critical matters impacting national security and the economy. Our global team uses cutting-edge technology, prioritizing a people-first, customer-focused, and fun work environment.

About the Role

BlackSky is looking for a talented Staff Software Engineer to support the development, operation, and evolution of its AI/ML Platform. As part of the BlackSky Labs team, you will be instrumental in developing novel ML applications. Your primary responsibilities will include the integration, testing, maintenance, and deployment of ML/AI products into BlackSky environments. You will work collaboratively with internal satellite development teams.

The ideal candidate has experience in geospatial software engineering, computer vision model deployment, operations, and testing. Familiarity with satellite imagery or similar datasets, agile development, and managing efforts as an independent contributor is expected. You should be an independent thinker eager to learn new tools and technologies.

Responsibilities:

• Deploy and integrate computer vision solutions for satellite imagery analytics.
• Ensure high-quality, production-ready Python or Go code.
• Manage cloud infrastructure and code deployment to AWS, Kubernetes, or other environments.
• Participate in the entire project lifecycle, from requirements development to deployment.
• Lead MLOps software development, data ETL, and software feature development projects.
• Collaborate with management and the technical team on the technical roadmap and implementation strategy.
• Perform other job-related duties as assigned.

Required Qualifications:

• Minimum of eight years of hands-on software engineering experience, with at least three years focused on geospatial MLOps.
• Bachelor’s Degree or higher in Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, Statistics, or another computational field, or equivalent experience.
• Demonstrated experience designing and building scalable production software solutions and architectures, especially for machine learning or image processing.
• Strong Python 3 or Go proficiency, with experience in production software for data ETL, REST APIs, microservices, geospatial applications, data analytics, and cloud deployment.
• Experience with databases, SQL queries, and data model design (especially SQL like PostgreSQL/PostGIS).
• Experience writing software to integrate with third-party APIs, perform data ETL, and manage complex data at scale in relational data stores.
• Excellent ability to communicate concepts and software system results to customers, management, and the technical team, highlighting actionable insights.
• Hands-on experience with AWS cloud services (e.g., EKS, S3, EC2, Aurora/RDS, SQS, SNS, Batch).
• Potential exposure to machine learning, statistics, or computer vision is helpful but not required.
• US Citizenship required due to program requirements.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Over ten years of hands-on software engineering experience.
• Advanced degree in a relevant field.
• Knowledge and experience with MLOps and DataOps practices.
• Experience with distributed compute environments (e.g., Kubernetes, Dask).
• Experience with on-prem or airgapped deployments.
• Hands-on experience with large imagery datasets (e.g., image normalization, augmentation, raster/vector visualization).
• Experience managing machine learning data labels or with third-party platforms (e.g., LabelBox, SuperAnnotate, ScaleAI).
• Experience with geospatial and image software stacks (e.g., GDAL, Rasterio, GeoPandas, Shapely, Xarray, Zarr).
• Experience with remote sensing datasets and image preprocessing/manipulation (e.g., Sentinel, LandSat, Airbus, Planet, WorldView).
• Experience with infrastructure solutions for scaling and deploying models in the cloud (e.g., Kubernetes, ClearML, Nvidia Triton, Kubeflow, Torch Serve, Argo).

Work Arrangement: Remote (Herndon, VA office preferred)

Salary Range: $150,000 - $180,000 per year (Seattle, WA range; may vary by location)

Life at BlackSky (US Benefits Eligible Employees):

• Insurance: Medical, dental, vision, disability, group term life, AD&D, voluntary life/AD&D. BlackSky covers 100% of employee-only premiums for medical, dental, and vision, and contributes $100/month for out-of-pocket expenses.
• Time Off: 15 days PTO, 11 company holidays, 4 floating holidays, 1 day paid volunteerism leave, parental leave, and more.
• Retirement: 401(k) with employer match (pre-tax and Roth options).
• Other: Flexible Spending Accounts, Employee Stock Purchase Program, Employee Assistance and Travel Assistance Programs, employer matching donations, professional development, choice of Mac or PC, company swag.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

BlackSky is committed to a diverse workforce and is 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. Compliance with U.S. Government space technology export regulations (ITAR) requires U.S. citizenship or lawful permanent residency.