Mission Planning Software Engineer

Location:

Hybrid, Munich

Team & Reporting line:
Imaging Operations/Mission Planning Unit, Reporting to the Image Operations Lead.

At the company, we're harnessing the power of space to solve one of Earth’s greatest challenges: climate resilience & security in a changing world. Our thermal satellite constellation delivers the most accurate land surface temperature data on the market, equipping commercial players, governments, defence agencies, and global institutions with the thermal intelligence they need to make strategic decisions– from national security and infrastructure to agriculture and climate resilience.

As a fast-scaling company with offices in Brussels, Freiburg, Munich, Washington and Toulouse, our multidisciplinary team of engineers, scientists, and strategists is building the future of space-based Earth observation.

As our Mission Planning Software Engineer, you will shape the software systems that enable automated, scalable mission planning for our satellite constellation. Working at the intersection of space operations and software engineering, you will transform mission objectives and operational constraints into reliable planning systems that power daily satellite activity. You will collaborate across operations and product teams to define how missions are planned and executed at scale, supporting the evolution from manual workflows to a unified, automated platform that directly drives satellite command and imaging execution.

• Build core mission planning services and algorithms that power mission planning applications for a growing satellite constellation

• Shape the architecture and design of mission planning systems to ensure scalability, reliability, and long-term operability

• Run, monitor, and maintain mission planning systems in live production environments

• Define engineering standards for reliability, CI/CD, infrastructure-as-code, observability, safety, and operational compliance

• Collaborate across Flight Operations, Flight Dynamics, Payload, Satellite Operations, and Product leadership to turn mission needs into technical direction and system design

• Drive adoption of CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure-as-code, and robust deployment practices across mission-critical systems

• Translate mission requests into executable satellite telecommands, including interaction with the telecommand database

• Align mission plans with onboard scheduling and execution constraints to ensure feasible satellite operations

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Computer Science, Physics, or a related technical field

• 3–5+ years of experience in software engineering, space systems engineering, satellite operations software, or ground segment development

• Strong experience building production-grade distributed systems, backend services, or mission-critical software

• Experience designing or working with mission planning, scheduling, automation, or orchestration systems in complex operational environments

• Strong software engineering skills in Python, Java, SQL, and containerised application development.

• Proven experience developing reliable, scalable software for production environments with a strong focus on correctness, robustness, and maintainability

• Familiarity with Linux environments and operating services in production (deployment, debugging, performance tuning)

• Experience with infrastructure components such as AWS, CI/CD pipelines, containerised deployments, and service orchestration

• Ability to design and debug complex systems involving multiple services, data flows, and external operational dependencies

• Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate effectively with Imaging Operations, Flight Operations, product and engineering teams

• High level of ownership, autonomy, and attention to detail in mission- or safety-critical contexts

• Comfort working in a fast-paced environment where systems evolve quickly, and operational reliability is essential

• Prior exposure to satellite operations environments or ground segment tool chains; particularly satellite tasking, commanding, and on-board schedule (plan) generation.

• Experience with…