Planet
Flight Dynamics Engineer, Orbits R&D
About this role
Planet seeks a Flight Dynamics Engineer to join its R&D team in San Francisco, developing software solutions for mission design, orbit determination, and scheduling across its diverse satellite constellations. You'll work on optimization problems, automate trade-study tools, and collaborate across flight dynamics and ground software teams to enhance current operations and enable future missions.
What you'll do
- Design and architect software solutions for mission design across Planet's heterogeneous satellite fleets
- Develop optimization tools to assess mission design trade-offs and support constellation planning
- Perform orbital mechanics analysis and first-principles calculations for mission scheduling
- Automate imaging and contact scheduling workflows for multiple satellite constellations
- Collaborate with mission planning, flight dynamics, and ground software teams on fleet operations
- Conduct trade studies and operationalize MVP solutions for new mission concepts
What they're looking for
- Orbital mechanics and space mission operations
- C++ and Python software development
- Orbit determination and trajectory propagation
- Mission design and constellation analysis
- Optimization problem-solving
- Technical communication and documentation
- Maneuver design and automation
- Automated testing and CI/CD practices
Benefits
- Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage with HSA company contributions
- 16 weeks of paid parental leave
- Generous paid time off plus company holidays
- Home office and monthly phone/internet reimbursement
- Tuition reimbursement and LinkedIn Learning access
- Wellness program and Employee Assistance Program
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Planet
Planet builds and operates Earth-imaging satellites and the cloud-native platforms that process satellite imagery data. The company is hiring software engineers for platform operations and backend compute systems, as well as hardware engineers (opto-mechanical and electrical) to design satellite payloads and subsystems.
View all jobs at PlanetLikely interview questions
- Walk us through a mission design trade study you've conducted—what parameters did you optimize for and what was your approach?
- Describe your experience with orbit determination or high-fidelity propagation tools; what challenges did you encounter?