Principal Software Engineer, Data Engineering

About Us:

BlackSky is a geospatial intelligence solutions provider that enables organizations to task, collect, and transform data from earth observation, global sensor networks, mobile devices, and social media to deliver on-demand insights about places, events, and assets that are critical to their operations. BlackSky provides satellite collection, data, and cloud-based processing and analytic solutions to organizations that are capitalizing on the exponential growth of a wide range of sensor and collection platforms for delivering the next generation of geo-intelligence and location intelligence solutions. BlackSky has extensive expertise and capabilities in commercial remote sensing, multi-source analytics, cloud computing, open-source software development, Amazon Web Services, and big data geospatial analytics. BlackSky is operating and deploying a constellation of high-resolution imaging spacecraft to image the planet in near real time.

BlackSky is looking for a talented and creative Principal Software Engineer / ML Ops / Data Engineer to support the development, operation, and capability evolution of Spectra AI, BlackSky's cutting edge AI/ML Platform. As part of the machine learning team, you are instrumental in supporting the automated monitoring mission at BlackSky. You will help build the software that scales the Spectra AI machine learning platform both for training and model development as well as deployment to operations delivering critical timely insights to our customers.

This position is a critical element of the BlackSky AI/ML Engineering team and is expected to work collaboratively with internal platform and satellite development teams to ensure success. The ideal candidate has strong data ETL and data warehousing experience; AI model development, operations, and test experience; familiarity with computer vision use cases; and success working in an agile development environment. Additionally, the ideal candidate has demonstrated the ability to manage their own efforts over a broad scope of work as an independent contributor. Finally, the candidate should be an independent thinker with the demonstrated ability and willingness to lean in and solve new problems.

While the job location listed here is ideal, we are open to hiring this position in our Seattle/Washington DC suburb offices or remotely certain states.

Responsibilities:

• Architect and develop machine learning platform software supporting training and model deployments including data ETL, ML job orchestration, data catalogs, data labeling systems, model training, model deployment & inference, and BI tools for metrics and model assessment.
• Design, build, and integrate software processes and tools that improves the velocity of the computer vision engineers researching and developing algorithmic models.
• Integrate machine learning and AI models developed by the machine learning team into the Spectra AI platform and codify common patterns and best practices.
• Work to scale all aspects of the Spectra AI platform supporting rapid model development and execution at consistent high quality.

Required Qualifications:

• Minimum of 15 years of hands-on experience as a software developer or software architect with at least two (2) years focused on data processing or machine learning.
• Bachelor's Degree or higher in one of the following fields: computer science, data science, mathematics, physics, statistics, or another computational field.
• Demonstrated experience designing and building scalable production software data architectures and workflows, especially for machine learning or image processing.
• Experience with cloud-based software architectures and deployments such as Kubernetes and AWS.
• Hands on experience working with and managing processing of large datasets and computational or analytic jobs.
• Strong Python3 proficiency and experience writing production software for data ETL, micro-services, business intelligence, and cloud deployment.
• Experience developing robust data models, data architectures, and software application services at scale for production especially with databases such as PostgeSQL, Elasticsearch, and/or MongoDB.
• Experience with data ETL and processing technologies such as Apache Airflow, Dask, Luigi, etc.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Knowledge and experience with MLOps and DataOps as a practice.
• Familiarity with Kubernetes and MLOps applications such as Kubeflow.
• Familiarity with machine learning frameworks such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, or Keras.
• Familiarity with machine learning platforms and data lake platforms such as AWS Sagemaker, Palantir, Databricks, or Snowflake.
• Knowledge and experience with geospatial data, computer vision, or satellite imagery.

Life at BlackSky for full-time benefits eligible employees includes:

• 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 Assistance and Travel Assistance Programs
• Employer matching donations
• Professional development
• Mac or PC? Your choice!
• Awesome swag

BlackSky is committed to hiring and retaining a diverse workforce. We are proud to be 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.

The anticipated salary range for candidates in Seattle, WA is $175,000 to $190,000 per year. The final compensation package offered to a successful candidate will be dependent on specific background and education. BlackSky is a multi-state employer and this pay scale may not reflect salary ranges in other states or locations outside of Seattle, WA.

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. EEO/AAP/ Pay Transparency Statements: https://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/posters/pdf/eeopost.pdf
https://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/posters/pdf/OFCCP_EEO_Supplement_Final_JRF_QA_508c.pdf

#ZR