Staff Software Engineer (Data Engineering)
About Us:
BlackSky is a real-time intelligence company. We own and operate the world's most advanced space-based intelligence platform and provide customers satellite imagery, automated analytics and high-frequency monitoring of strategic locations, economic assets and events from around the globe. BlackSky is trusted by the most demanding allied military and intelligence organizations and commercial companies to deliver foresight into critical matters that affect national security and the economy. BlackSky's data enables governments and businesses to see, understand and anticipate change as it happens, giving them the ultimate strategic advantage so they can act quickly. Our global team works with cutting-edge technology to make a difference around the world and prides itself on being people-first, customer-focused and fun.
BlackSky is looking for a talented and creative Staff Software 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 ensure that Spectra AI produces consistent, reliable, and relevant analytics to BlackSky's growing user base.
This position is a critical element of the BlackSky AI/ML Engineering team and is expected to work collaboratively with internal satellite development teams to ensure success. The ideal candidate has geospatial software engineering, computer vision model deployment, operations, and testing experience; familiarity with satellite imagery or similar datasets; 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 to learn new tools, technologies, and approaches to solve new problems. This role reports to the Manager, Machine Learning Operations. While we would prefer this position to be local to our Herndon, VA office, we are open to candidates in certain remote states.
Responsibilities:
Design and implement image and data label processing pipelines and software services to assist researchers developing computer vision solutions for next-generation satellite imagery analytics.
Ensure high-quality and production-ready Python or Go code.
Take part in the entire project lifecycle from requirements development to deployment.
Serve as a lead on MLOps software development projects, data ETL projects, and software feature development.
Collaborate with management and technical team on technical roadmap and implementation strategy.
Other job-related duties as assigned.
Required Qualifications:
Minimum of eight years of hands-on experience as a software engineer with at least three years focused on geospatial imagery.
Bachelor's/Master's Degree or higher in one of the following fields: computer science, mathematics, physics, statistics, or another computational field.
Demonstrated experience designing and building scalable production software solutions and architectures, especially for machine learning or image processing.
Strong Python3 proficiency or GO proficiency and experience writing production software for data ETL, REST APIs, micro-services, geospatial, or data analytics, and cloud deployment.
Experience with databases, SQL queries, and data model design especially SQL such as PostgreSQL/PostGIS.
Experience writing software to integrate with third-party APIs, performing data ETL, and managing complex data at scale in relational data stores.
Strong ability to communicate concepts and software system results with customers, management, and the technical team, highlighting actionable insights
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