Ground Stations Engineer

Ground Stations Engineer

Planet Labs

Berlin, Germany

About the Role:

As an Ground Station Engineer at Planet you will be a member of an Operations and Development team focused on >99% uptime of a geographically diverse Ground Station network. The network is composed of a mix of cloud infrastructure, physical servers, networking equipment, and industrial controllers working in unison to autonomously track and communicate with Planet’s 150+ satellite constellation.

Planet’s satellites generate a substantial dataset and moving that data across the Ground Station network daily poses ever changing design goals for our Operations Team. The Ground Station team works closely with Spacecraft Operators and Mission Control engineers to autonomously control the spacecraft and bring the data back to Earth.

This is a full-time, hybrid role which will require you to be in our Berlin office 3 days per week. An essential element of this position requires the ability to climb, and lift/push/pull equipment up to 50 pounds.

Impact You’ll Own:

• Contribute to the design, operation, and reliability of a growing global Ground Station Network spanning 6 continents;
• Oversee ground station sites, working with site staff and vendors to maintain a highly reliable downlink network around the world;
• Partner and collaborate with various teams with Planet, ranging from Mission Operations to Spacecraft design, to ensure the Ground Station Network meets all of the needs to achieve Planet’s missions.

What You Bring:

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field of study;
• 2+ years antenna system design and analysis;
• Any programming experience with Python, Perl, Rust, Go, C/C++ or equivalents;
• Familiarity with RF test equipment such as spectrum and network analyzers;
• Ability to foster a collaborative environment and mentor team members;
• Ability to work with little or no supervision;
• Ability to participate in an on-call rotation that will include weekends;
• Ability to climb, and lift/push/pull equipment up to 50 pounds;
• Hold a valid drivers license;
• Ability to travel up to 25% of the time, including internationally.

What Makes You Stand Out:

• Basic understanding of RF communication and satellite communication protocols;
• Experience in an Operations environment with an on-call schedule;
• 1+ years of experience with RF Electronics and Communication Systems including: RF Front-End Equipment, Back-End Equipment, Communication Hardware, and Link Budgets;
• Antenna system calibration, diagnostics and monitoring experience;
• Experience with telemetry, tracking and control systems;
• 1+ Project management and logistics experience;
• Radar and/or comms experience;
• Experience with Linux or UNIX servers.

Apply NowDeadline 10 September