Staff Electro-Optical Payload Engineer Verified today

About the Role

BlackSky seeks a Staff Electro-Optical Payload Engineer to architect, design, and test new EO payload concepts for our growing portfolio of imaging payloads. You will influence payload design and development, develop integration and test strategies, and support instruments through on-orbit commissioning and longer-term characterization and calibration.

Your focus will be on testing and satellite integration of new payloads and sensors across their entire lifecycle. You will develop a new payload and a new optical test facility for it, working closely with Image Processing and Satellite Operations teams to design frameworks that characterize, optimize, and improve payload performance throughout operational lifetimes on orbit.

Responsibilities

• Develop comprehensive integration, requirements verification, and test strategies for EO payloads
• Develop and maintain optical and sensor test facilities
• Test payloads and support production teams during satellite integration
• Partner with engineering, program management, and production to ensure end-to-end validation from plan through design and execution
• Define requirements for and oversee design and build of test Ground Support Equipment (GSE) and test infrastructure
• Support development of new EO payload architectures and concepts
• Simulate and analyse new sensors, designs, and phenomenologies to support R&D and technical strategy
• Develop optical system requirements for new designs
• Provide technical assistance and oversight with design procurement and integration
• Support characterization and commissioning of orbital imaging systems
• Evaluate on-orbit imaging performance against ground predictions and evolve test and performance prediction capabilities

Required Qualifications

• At least 10 years of experience in technical engineering roles involving specification, modeling, design, integration, and/or test of imaging or non-imaging optical systems and associated components/subsystems, particularly testing of space-based optical systems
• Bachelor's degree in optical engineering, physics, or other appropriate technical field (or equivalent experience of four additional years)
• Hands-on laboratory experience and familiarity with typical optical test and meteorology instrumentation and practices, e.g., interferometers, theodolite/laser tracker, optical alignment
• Proficiency in at least one computer language with emphasis on numerical or technical computing
• Strong technical grasp of physics of optical image formation and associated detector phenomenology, especially in visible and infrared spectra
• Proficiency with radiometry, optical imaging and detection figures of merit, and optical system performance modeling/estimation/simulation
• Adept at developing concise specifications for optical systems within a well-defined, systematic requirements framework
• Familiarity with satellite/payload interface and CONOPs constraints and associated systems engineering
• US citizenship required due to program requirements

Preferred Qualifications

• Post-graduate degree in a relevant technical field
• Direct experience in spaceborne optical remote sensing systems
• Direct experience in focal plane array design and engineering
• Direct experience in satellite radiometric, spatial, and spectral calibration
• Proficiency with Python for numerical and technical programming
• Familiarity and experience with a technical discipline complementary to optics, e.g., mechanical, thermal, electrical engineering

Location and Work Arrangement

Position is based in Tukwila, WA or short-term remote. Once hardware arrives, you must be local by end of 2026 and comfortable working hybrid.

Compensation

Anticipated salary range for Seattle, WA: $155,000-$180,000 per year. Final compensation dependent on specific background and education. BlackSky is a multi-state employer; pay scale may vary by location.

Benefits (Full-Time US Benefits-Eligible Employees)

• Medical, dental, vision, disability, group term 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 PTO, 11 company holidays, four floating holidays (pro-rated), one day paid volunteerism leave per year, parental leave
• 401(k) pre-tax and Roth options with employer match
• Flexible Spending Accounts
• Employee Stock Purchase Program
• Employee Assistance and Travel Assistance Programs
• Employer matching donations
• Professional development
• Choice of Mac or PC