Senior Infrastructure Solutions Engineer
Planet Labs · Remote · Slovenia +3 · 1d ago
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:
A Senior Infrastructure Solutions Engineer makes Planet's infrastructure easier to use. Infra Solutions is a small, multi-disciplinary team: engineers who are as comfortable operating a system as building one, and as comfortable in a hard conversation as in a code review. We sit between the teams who build Planet's platform capabilities and the teams who need them, and our market is every engineering team at Planet, which we earn one engagement at a time. Teams work with us because we make their week lighter, not because anyone told them to, and every team that lands on the platform is infrastructure Planet no longer has to duplicate, secure and pay for.
Most of what you do takes the shape of a hands-on engagement with a team that is blocked, mid-migration, or arriving on the platform for the first time. They usually arrive with a proposed solution rather than the problem behind it, and working out the difference is where the engagement starts. From there you own it end to end: the diagnosis, the hands-on fix, the argument for what should change upstream, and the durable artifact that stops the next team hitting the same wall. This is a role driven by unreasonable hospitality (value out of proportion to what anyone asked us for) and backed by solid engineering and operator depth. You have run things in production, and you write the code other engineers depend on. The ideal candidate is energized by other teams' success: someone who would rather ship the thing that makes ten teams faster than own a system outright, and who does their best work in a room they don't own, with people who are not yet convinced they need help.
This is a full-time, remote position based in Germany, the Netherlands or Slovenia. If located near a Planet office, you are expected to work from that office 3 days per week.
Impact You’ll Own:
- Lead end-to-end technical engagements: Partner directly with engineering teams to diagnose, unblock, and resolve complex infrastructure challenges.
- Execute critical migrations: Develop reference implementations, tooling, and guidance to transition teams off deprecated systems seamlessly.
- Accelerate platform adoption: Act as the primary technical contact for new teams onboarding to Planet’s core infrastructure.
- Establish standardized paths: Consolidate disparate solutions into well-supported, paved-road infrastructure offerings.
- Build scalable, shared artifacts: Design re-usable libraries, Terraform modules, and Helm charts to solve recurring technical patterns across teams.
- Enhance platform observability: Implement instrumentation and attribution tooling to provide visibility into infrastructure cost, usage, and adoption.
- Inform platform strategy: Synthesize engineering feedback and common pain points to influence the broader infrastructure roadmap.
What You Bring:
- 6+ years of professional experience in Platform Engineering, DevOps, or Site Reliability Engineering, including experience leading at least one cross-team project or migration.
- Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field.
- Background in technical enablement, developer experience, or solutions architecture with a focus on internal developer productivity.
- Hands-on experience operating and maintaining production infrastructure environments.
- Deep expertise with Kubernetes orchestration, including workload optimization and operations.
- Working knowledge of Google Cloud Platform (GCP) or other public cloud providers, including its compute, storage, quota, and capacity mode.
- Experience with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Helm, ArgoCD) and CI/CD pipelines.
- Proficiency in software development using Go or Python.
- Ability to translate ambiguous requirements into structured, actionable engineering tasks.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills for technical documentation and cross-functional collaboration.
What Makes You Stand Out:
- Experience with large-scale block storage (Persistent Disk, Hyperdisk, Ceph, SAN, or equivalent) operated at fleet scale rather than per-service.
- Experience driving large-scale migrations or deprecations that required buy-in from teams outside your reporting line.
- Experience in a consulting-adjacent engineering role (solutions architecture, professional services, or technical account engineering) applied to an internal platform.
- Familiarity with workflow orchestration (e.g. Temporal), batch and job-execution systems, or large-scale data processing pipelines.
- Experience defining and measuring platform adoption: developer-productivity instrumentation, NPS, or internal marketshare.
Application Deadline:
11:45p / 23:45 CET on the date stated below. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. This posting may be removed earlier than projected if a suitable pool of applications has been received. For this reason, we recommend applying as soon as you are able to.
Benefits While Working at Planet:
These offerings are dependent on employment type and geographical location, based upon applicable law or company policy.
- Paid time off including vacation, holidays and company-wide days off
- Employee Wellness Program
- Home Office Reimbursement
- Monthly Phone and Internet Reimbursement
- Tuition Reimbursement and access to LinkedIn Learning
- Equity
- Volunteering Paid Time Off
Compensation:
The expected starting gross salary range for this role is listed below. Individual placement within this range is determined objectively based on gender-neutral criteria such as your skills, qualifications, and professional experience. This position may also be eligible for discretionary bonuses and/or equity.
#LI-REMOTE
San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance
Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
Why we care so much about Belonging.
We’re dedicated to helping the whole Planet, and to do that we must strive to represent all of it within each of our offices and on all of our teams. That’s why Planet is guided by an ultimate north star of Belonging—dreaming big as we approach our ongoing work. If this job intrigues you, but you’re thinking you might not have all the qualifications, please... do apply! At Planet, we are looking for well-rounded people from around the world who can contribute to more ways than just what is listed in this job description. We don’t just fill positions, we aspire to fulfill people’s careers, most excited about folks who are motivated by our underlying humanitarian efforts. We are a few orbits around the sun before we get to where we want to be, so we hope you’re excited to come along for the ride.
EEO statement:
Planet is committed to building a community where everyone belongs and we invite people from all backgrounds to apply. Planet is an equal opportunity employer, and committed to providing employment opportunities regardless of race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding, age, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other protected classification, in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. Know Your Rights.
Accommodations:
Planet is an inclusive community and we know that everyone has their own needs. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation during the hiring process, please reach out to accommodations@planet.com or contact your recruiter with your request. Your message will be confidential and we will be happy to assist you.
Privacy Policy: By clicking "Apply Now" at the top of this job posting, I acknowledge that I have read the Planet Data Privacy Notice for California Staff Members and Applicants, and hereby consent to the collection, processing, use, and storage of my personal information as described therein.
Privacy Policy (European Applicants): By clicking "Apply Now" at the top of this job posting, I acknowledge that I have read the Candidate Privacy Notice GDPR Planet Labs Europe, and hereby consent to the collection, processing, use, and storage of my personal information as described therein.
AI in Our Interviewing Process: Planet is committed to providing an exceptional interview experience for all candidates. We currently use Metaview to better focus on candidates and less on trying to capture notes. As such, with the candidate's consent, select interviews may be recorded and include a "Planet AI Notetaker" for transcription and summarization purposes. Should an interview involve use of AI interview technologies, the candidate will receive notification and have the ability to opt out both in advance and/or real-time. Opting out will not affect one's candidacy.
Candidate AI Policy: Planet embraces Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, and we encourage its responsible use. We understand that candidates may use various resources, including AI tools, to prepare for interviews and assessments. However, during any live interview stage or when actively completing assessments for this position, the use of AI tools—e.g. Large Language Models (LLMs), deep fake technology, etc.—is strictly prohibited unless explicitly prompted by an interviewer or assessment instructions. If you are unsure about acceptable use, please contact your recruiter for clarification. If an AI tool or similar technology is desired as an accommodation, please contact accommodations@planet.com with your request for assistance. Your message will be confidential, and we will be happy to assist you. Violation of this policy may result in disqualification of your application.