Vice President Defense and Intelligence Engineering

Welcome to Planet. We believe in using space to help life on Earth.

Planet designs, builds, and operates the largest constellation of imaging satellites in history. This constellation delivers an unprecedented dataset of empirical information via a revolutionary cloud-based platform to authoritative figures in commercial, environmental, and humanitarian sectors. We are both a space company and data company all rolled into one.

Customers and users across the globe use Planet's data to develop new technologies, drive revenue, power research, and solve our world’s toughest obstacles.

As we control every component of hardware design, manufacturing, data processing, and software engineering, our office is a truly inspiring mix of experts from a variety of domains.

We have a people-centric approach toward culture and community and we strive to iterate in a way that puts our team members first and prepares our company for growth. Join Planet and be a part of our mission to change the way people see the world.

Planet is a global company with employees working remotely world wide and joining us from offices in San Francisco, Washington DC, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, and The Netherlands.

About the Role:

As the Vice President of Defense and Intelligence (D&I) Engineering, you will lead, scale, and direct the software engineering organization responsible for building Planet’s end-to-end dual-use products and applications. You will own the technical architecture, systems development, and operational delivery of flagship dual-use products—such as Global Monitoring Service (GMS), Marine Domain Awareness (MDA), automated change detection feeds, and agentic workflows.

 In this executive engineering role, you will lead multi-disciplinary teams across software, architecture, AI/ML, analytics, and forward deployed engineering. You will partner directly with Product Management, Core Platform Engineering, and Executive Leadership to transform raw satellite imagery and API services into scalable, mission-critical dual-use software solutions. You will oversee system availability, performance SLAs, and ITAR-compliant deployment pipelines, serving as the senior engineering authority for Planet’s defense and intelligence software portfolio. Ideal candidates are visionary engineering leaders passionate about delivering impactful geospatial solutions.

This is a full-time, hybrid role which will require you to work from our Denver, CO office 3 days per week.

Impact You'll Own:

• Engineering Leadership & Delivery: Lead, mentor, and scale multi-disciplinary software engineering teams (software, data/ML, platform, and infrastructure) tasked with building and maintaining end-to-end dual-use products like Global Monitoring Service (GMS) and Marine Domain Awareness (MDA).