Capella Space stands at the forefront of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite technology and signal intelligence. We provide customers in governments, academia, and commercial sectors with reliable information that enables unparalleled understanding of the world. Our mission is centered on delivering timely and reliable Earth imagery, supporting diverse applications in defense & intelligence, disaster response, energy, environmental monitoring and more. Utilizing cutting-edge technology, Capella Space designs, manufactures and operates an advanced constellation of SAR imaging satellites. Our market-leading SAR satellites are complemented by an unmatched data infrastructure and automated ordering and delivery platform for fast, reliable insights where and when customers need it most.

Recognized for our technological prowess, Capella Space was honored as one of the 10 most innovative companies in Space in 2023 by FASTCOMPANY. Capella Space is an internationally trusted Earth Observation data provider, working closely with the U.S. Space Systems Command, U.S. Space Force, NASA, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, the Canadian Government and more to make unclassified, high-resolution SAR data more accessible. 

What Makes Capella Unique?

Capella Space is a highly collaborative team environment, providing an opportunity to work with some of the brightest minds in the space industry, though no prior space experience is needed.  We’re looking for people excited about tackling seemingly impossible challenges, learning new skills and concepts, and helping each other achieve success. Our mission and our products are meant to understand the whole world and help everyone in it - regardless of race, creed, or any other distinction. We encourage you to bring your unique perspective to help make us stronger, including applications from those who are traditionally underrepresented in tech.

About the Team

The Platform Engineering team is responsible for building, maintaining, and improving the software, infrastructure, and systems that operate the Capella constellation. We prepare for satellite launches, maintain spacecraft on-orbit, and develop new capabilities to improve how customers can collect and access Earth imagery. The team’s focus is on software and systems engineering, maintaining and improving a fully-autonomous, rapid-response spacecraft operations system. 

As a senior leader on the Platform Engineering team, you will be interacting daily with other team leads, software engineers, spacecraft operators, satellite engineers, and data product engineers to develop, maintain, and improve the system. You will have a demonstrable track record of working with complex systems, understanding distributed systems architecture, and setting the engineering development plan and roadmap for making complex technologies easy to use.

Our company operates 24/7/365 with customers around the globe using our capabilities in mission critical operations. As a result, we respond when needed to maintain a high level of service availability, sometimes at odd hours and without notice. All members of the team are expected to participate in the on-call rotation that responds to issues/outages/anomalies so that we provide reliable performance our customers can depend on. 

About the Role

As Senior Director of Software Engineering in the Platform Engineering team you lead our teams that build & maintain our ground systems across the globe. You will be a technology leader, people manager & technical mentor. You will lead the people that define, grow, build, test, deploy, monitor, and maintain the applications that run our constellations. 

All of our system components are python services running in AWS, with various underlying modern cloud technologies. These systems are responsible for command and telemetry handling, mission automation, system monitoring and alerting, ground station integration, satellite operator tools and interfaces, tasking & scheduling, data processing & dissemination, and common software infrastructure. 

Day-to-day responsibilities include working with internal and external stakeholders to define roadmap and set prioritization for tasks, planning team growth and help with recruiting, and providing key technical vision and expertise in the areas of software architecture and engineering. You will help set broad direction and strategy, bring in your experience to enhance & innovate, and establish best practices to ensure the quality and performance of the system is maintained and customer needs are met. 

We’re searching for an experienced, passionate, and humble leader who is relentless in the pursuit of innovation and excellence in support of our customer’s critical missions.

Ideal Qualifications:

• Past leadership experience mentoring and growing software engineering teams.
• Past experience working on a system with a global 24/7/365 operational requirements.
• Ability to lead a geographically distributed & diverse team.
• Experience maintaining an engineering roadmap and leading prioritization of efforts across multiple projects.
• Excellent communications skills, ability to work collaboratively in a team environment, and enjoyment of learning from and teaching other teams new skills.
• Excellent foundations of software architecture, interface design, distributed systems, and testing patterns. 
• Experience building and maintaining highly reliable software systems employing best practices in logging, monitoring, alerting, and reporting. 
• Experience with modern Python & AWS best practices (all our components are Python in AWS).
• Experience with (having rolled up your sleeves or having worked alongside) DevOps, distributed system testing, CI/CD systems, release management, and site reliability engineering.
• To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), Capella Employees must be a U.S. citizen, lawful U.S. permanent resident (i.e., current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State and/or the U.S. Department of Commerce, as applicable.

Compensation

The annual salary range for this role as it is posted is $220,000.00 - $258,285.00.  The final job level and annual salary will be determined based on the education, qualification, knowledge, skills, ability, and experience of the final candidate(s), specific office location and calibrated against relevant market data and internal team equity.  Benefits listed in this posting may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Capella Space.

Benefits/Perks

In addition to an opportunity to take part in an innovative, collaborative and fast-growing business with a highly motivated and skilled team, we also take pride in taking care of our employees. Here are just a few ways that we show our appreciation:

• We offer up to 100% paid medical coverage, with robust vision and dental plans, comprehensive flexible spending accounts, and supplemental health plans 
• Equity
• 401K Plan to invest in your long-term retirement planning
• Generous Parental Leave
• Flexible Paid Time Off Policy
• Commuter & Parking Benefits
• Mental Health Resources
• Monthly phone stipend
• Daily provided lunches and stocked kitchens. 
• Furry friends? We’ve got you covered with dog-friendly work environment & them with pet insurance options

Equal Opportunity Statement

Capella Space is an equal opportunity employer, committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace, and upholding equitable hiring practices.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic under federal, state, or local law, including those with a criminal history, in a manner consistent with the requirements of applicable state and local laws, including the CA Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring Ordinance. We actively encourage members of recognized minorities, women, Veterans, and those with disabilities to apply, and we work to create a welcoming and supportive environment for all applicants throughout the interview process. If you need assistance or require an accommodation during the job application process, please notify [email protected]

To learn more about us, explore our site: https://www.capellaspace.com/ and follow us on X and LinkedInto see our SAR imagery!