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BlackSky · 4 months ago

Principal Machine Learning Operations Software Engineer

Herndon, VA

Full-time

Onsite

Lead/Staff

$175K/yr - $200K/yr

10+ years exp

BlackSky is a real-time intelligence company that operates the world's most advanced space-based intelligence platform. They are seeking a Principal Software Engineer to support the development and operation of their AI/ML platform, Spectra AI, which involves designing image processing pipelines and collaborating with various teams to ensure high-quality analytics for satellite imagery.

Defense & Space

No H1B

U.S. Citizen Only

Responsibilities

Design and implement image processing pipelines and software services to assist researchers developing computer vision solutions for next-generation satellite imagery analytics

Ensure high-quality and production-ready Python and GO code

Take part in the entire project lifecycle from requirements development to deployment

Serve as a lead on MLOps software development projects, data ETL projects, and software feature development

Collaborate with management and technical team on technical roadmap and implementation strategy

Own and architect the vision, strategy, and technical roadmap for BlackSky's machine learning operations platform, ensuring it can scale to support a growing portfolio of advanced AI products

Design, build, and operate a robust and automated infrastructure for the entire ML lifecycle, including labeling, ETL, training, deployment, and monitoring

Develop and manage processes and tools to improve the velocity of researchers developing next-generation AI for processing satellite imagery and multimodal data

Act as a key technical leader, partnering with stakeholders across teams (e.g., computer vision, data, platform) to streamline the path to production and accelerate AI product development timelines

Clearly and effectively communicate technical strategy, opportunities, risks, and progress to senior leadership and key stakeholders across the company

Mentor and guide other engineers on the team, leveraging your experience to teach others and foster a culture of technical excellence and innovation

Other job-related duties as assigned

Qualification

Geospatial software engineeringMachine learning operationsPython programmingCloud services (AWS)Computer visionData ETLDistributed computing (Kubernetes)Image processingSoft skills

Required

Minimum of ten years of hands-on experience as a software engineer with at least four years focused on geospatial imagery

Bachelor's/Master's Degree or higher in one of the following fields: computer science, mathematics, physics, statistics, or another computational field

Demonstrated experience designing and building scalable production software solutions and architectures, especially for machine learning or image processing

Strong Python or Golang proficiency and experience writing production software for data ETL, micro-services, geospatial, or data analytics, and cloud deployment

Experience with distributed compute environments such as Kubernetes and Dask

Hands on experience working with large imagery datasets including image normalization, image augmentation, raster/vector visualization, etc

Strong ability to communicate concepts and software system results with customers, management, and the technical team, highlighting actionable insights

Hands on experience with cloud services such as AWS EKS, S3, EC2, Aurora / RDS, SQS, SNS, Batch, etc

Experience working with geospatial and image software stacks (GDAL, Rasterio, GeoPandas, Shapely, Xarray, Zarr, etc.)

You may have some exposure to machine learning. While not a requirement, it would be helpful if you have studied or have worked with machine learning, statistics, computer vision and would enjoy working with Computer Vision subject matter experts

The program this role will support requires Us-born citizenship

Preferred

Over 12 years of hands-on experience as a software engineer

Knowledge and experience with MLOps and DataOps as a practice

Experience with databases and data model design especially SQL such as Postgres / PostGIS and ElasticSearch

Experience with remote sensing datasets and image preprocessing and manipulation methods for sensors such as Sentinel, LandSat, BlackSky, Airbus, Planet, or WorldView

Experience with Infrastructure solutions including (scaling and deploying models in the cloud using AWS solutions such as Kubernetes, ClearML, Nvidia Triton, Kubeflow, Torch Serve, Argo, etc.)

Benefits

Medical, dental, vision, disability, group term life and AD&D, voluntary life and AD&D insurance

BlackSky pays 100% of employee-only premiums for medical, dental and vision and contributes $100/month for out-of-pocket expenses!

15 days of PTO, 11 Company holidays, four Floating Holidays (pro-rated based on hire date), one day of paid volunteerism leave per year, parental leave and more

401(k) pre-tax and Roth deferral options with employer match

Flexible Spending Accounts

Employee Stock Purchase Program

Employee Assistance and Travel Assistance Programs

Employer matching donations

Professional development

Mac or PC? Your choice!

Awesome swag

Company

BlackSky

BlackSky is a space-based intelligence company that delivers real-time imagery with global rapid revisit, analytics, and high-frequency monitoring of the most critical and strategic locations, economic assets, and events.

Founded in 2013

Herndon, Virginia, US

201-500 employees