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Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md). --- # Ground and Control Services, Software Engineering Manager - **Company:** Blacksky Holdings LLC - **Location:** Herndon, VA, United States - **Experience:** Expert - **Salary:** $165,000.0 - $205,000.0 - **Contract:** Permanent contract - **Skills:** Amazon Web Services, Automation of Tests, Microsoft Azure, C++ (Programming Language), Code Review, Distributed Systems, Fault Tolerance, Python (Programming Language), Ansible, Software Engineering, Google Cloud, Cloud Platform System, Kubernetes, Information Technology, Operational Systems, Terraform, Software Version Control, Golang, Programming Languages, Microservices - **Published:** July 9, 2026 - **Apply:** https://jobs.localjobnetwork.com/apply/add/87660397/1 ## About the Role * Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience. * A minimum of eight (8) years of professional experience in software engineering, including experience building or operating complex distributed, autonomous, or missioncritical systems. * At least two (2) years of experience leading engineering teams as a people manager or technical lead with formal leadership responsibilities. * Strong technical background in one or more programming languages (e.g., Go, Python, C++), with the ability to provide architectural guidance and review complex designs. * Experience developing and deploying microservices in cloud environments (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure) and on-premises Kubernetesbased systems. * Solid understanding of CI/CD pipelines, automated testing strategies, version control, and operational best practices. * Demonstrated ability to manage priorities, coordinate across teams, and deliver results in fast-paced environments with operational dependencies. * Excellent communication, collaboration, and conflictresolution skills, especially in crossfunctional settings. * Some programs this role supports may require the candidate to be a U.S. citizen., * Master's degree (or higher) in a relevant technical field. * Ten or more years of professional engineering experience, including leadership of teams responsible for high-availability or mission-critical software. * Experience managing teams working with infrastructureascode tools (e.g., Terraform, Ansible), container orchestration (e.g., Kubernetes, Nomad), or distributed systems. * Knowledge of system safety, fault tolerance, redundancy, and recovery strategies in autonomous or operationally sensitive environments. * Background in satellite operations, ground stations, or aerospace domains (e.g., XBand, UHF, telemetry), or experience supporting secure customer programs. * Prior experience aligning engineering execution with both commercial production SLAs and programspecific requirements, deliverables, or milestones. ## Description The Ground & Control Services (GCS) team is seeking a thoughtful and technically strong Engineering Manager to lead the group responsible for building the autonomous systems that control and monitor BlackSky's satellite constellation. This team owns highspeed tasking, ground and space telemetry, health monitoring, and lowlatency communication with ground stations worldwide. As the GCS Manager, you will guide the engineers who design, build, and operate software that bridges hardwarelevel interfaces with clouddeployed microservices-software that keeps our satellites healthy, safe, and responsive 24/7. In this role, you'll provide technical direction, build healthy engineering processes, and cultivate a culture of curiosity, safety, and ownership. You will partner with mission operations, spacecraft engineering, product teams, and program leadership to ensure the team consistently meets both commercial production goals and programdriven requirements. This includes balancing longterm reliability with rapid iteration, supporting operational readiness for live constellation needs, and delivering capabilities aligned with customer commitments and program milestones. You'll help your team reason about complex autonomous systems where reliability matters as much as performance, and you'll play a key part in scaling our constellation as we grow. Success in this role means enabling your team to deliver high-quality, dependable software; ensuring operational excellence; communicating effectively across disciplines; and supporting engineers in developing their careers while fostering a collaborative, mission-focused environment. This role reports to the Director, Ground Apps and Services and is strongly preferred to be in the Seattle, WA area. Who you are: * An effective people manager who is excited to guide, coach, and scale a team. * A technical leader who can provide clear architectural direction while empowering engineers to make informed decisions and grow their expertise. * An organized planner who can translate evolving priorities into clear roadmaps, break work into actionable tasks, and drive predictable execution. * A collaborator who has experience partnering with cross functional teams across an organization. * A dependable executor who drives clear priorities, sets realistic expectations, and ensures the team delivers highquality results consistently. * A culture builder who values collaboration, inclusivity, psychological safety, and continuous improvement - and actively models those behaviors., * Lead, mentor, and grow the Ground & Control Services engineering team responsible for autonomous satellite operations, realtime tasking, and groundtospace communications. * Work with leadership to drive prioritization and planning across GCS projects with dynamically changing commercial and program objectives, ensuring engineering efforts stay aligned with business goals, customer commitments, and mission operations. * Partner with operations, communication engineering, flight software, mission planning, product, and program leadership to clarify requirements, align priorities, and maintain a strong endtoend understanding of system behavior. * Provide technical direction and architectural guidance for systems interfacing with ground stations, satellite communication protocols, and missioncritical operational workflows. * Establish and continuously improve engineering processes including design reviews, code reviews, testing practices, system safety considerations, and operational readiness. * Foster a healthy on-call culture and ensure effective support of live operational systems, including incident response, rootcause analysis, and long-term corrective actions. * Drive roadmap planning, resource allocation, and execution across multiple projects, balancing rapid iteration with longterm reliability and availability. * Hire, onboard, coach, and evaluate engineers, emphasizing skill development, collaboration, and accountability. * Perform other leadership tasks as required to ensure the success of the team and mission. * Other responsibilities as assigned. ## Related Videos - [Dev & Test in the Cloud? 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