Senior Flight Dynamics Engineer, Orbits R&D
Job description
Senior Flight Dynamics Engineer responsible for flight dynamics and mission planning for Planet's fleet of Earth observation satellites, including mission design, orbit determination, maneuver design, and conjunction assessment. The role involves developing and automating tools to assess mission design trade-offs for current and future constellations.
At a glance
- Employment
- Full-time · Employee (employment agreement)
- Work mode
- Hybrid · Berlin, Germany
- Pay
- EUR 86,600 – 108,300 / year
What you'll do
- Research, design, and architect new software solutions for managing Mission Design needs for Planet's increasingly diverse fleets of satellites
- Work on complex optimization problems with knowledge of flight dynamics and software engineering
- Develop and automate tools to assess mission design trade-offs that will define the future of Planet's constellations
- Collaborate with mission planning, flight dynamics, and ground software teams to improve the operations of existing fleets and enable future missions
- Perform first-principles analysis to optimize scheduling of imaging and contacts for Planet's diverse satellite constellations
What we're looking for
- 10+ years of relevant work experience
- Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, physics or related technical field
- Expertise in orbital mechanics and space mission operations
- Deep knowledge in software development, in C++ and Python
- Experience carrying out first-principles analysis and operationalizing MVP solutions
- Excellent written and verbal technical communication skills
Nice to have
- Experience with constellation and mission design trade studies
- Experience implementing orbit determination and high-fidelity propagation
- Experience implementing covariance realism
- Experience implementing low-thrust mission design
- Experience implementing maneuver automation
- Experience implementing constellation management
- Experience maintaining peer-reviewed code, attention to quality including automated testing, and continuous integration and deployment
Your team
Flight Dynamics and Mission Planning
A small team of dedicated engineers responsible for the Flight Dynamics and Mission Planning for Planet's fleet of satellites, covering mission design, orbit determination, maneuver design and execution, and conjunction assessment & mitigation, as well as optimal scheduling of imaging and contacts for the Dove, SkySat, Pelican, and Tanager constellations.
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About Planet
Using space to help life on Earth
Planet designs, builds, and operates the largest constellation of imaging satellites in history, delivering an unprecedented dataset of empirical information via a cloud-based platform to commercial, environmental, and humanitarian sectors. Planet controls every component of hardware design, manufacturing, data processing, and software engineering.
Mission
To use space to help life on Earth
Key facts
- Earth Observation / Space
- Operates the largest constellation of imaging satellites in history
- Both a space company and data company
- Controls every component of hardware design, manufacturing, data processing, and software engineering
- Constellations include Dove, SkySat, Pelican, and Tanager
What they value
- Belonging
- People-centric approach toward culture and community
- Inclusive community
- Humanitarian efforts