Staff Software Engineer, Enterprise Services

Staff Software Engineer, Enterprise Services

About Us:

BlackSky is a real-time intelligence company. We own and operate the world’s most advanced space-based intelligence platform and provide customers satellite imagery, automated analytics and high-frequency monitoring of strategic locations, economic assets and events from around the globe. BlackSky is trusted by the most demanding allied military and intelligence organizations and commercial companies to deliver foresight into critical matters that affect national security and the economy. BlackSky’s data enables governments and businesses to see, understand and anticipate change as it happens, giving them the ultimate strategic advantage so they can act quickly. Our global team works with cutting-edge technology to make a difference around the world and prides itself on being people-first, customer-focused and fun.

The Enterprise Services Software Engineer designs, builds, and maintains production‑grade software systems within distributed, API‑driven architectures. This role focuses on developing scalable services, improving existing systems, ensuring system reliability, and supporting continuous integration and delivery across cloud environments. Engineers on this team collaborate directly with customers, partners, and cross‑functional teams within BlackSky to deliver high‑quality enterprise services and contributes to architectural decisions, performance improvements, and long-term maintainability.

This role is remote and candidates and will report to the Manager of Enterprise Services. The team operates primarily on East Coast time. While the locations listed in the job posting are ideal, we would love candidates near our Herndon, VA office. We may also consider remote candidates in certain states.

Responsibilities:

• Design, develop, and maintain production‑grade enterprise software using Java, Go, and Python
• Build and enhance distributed, API‑driven microservices and backend systems
• Analyze user and system requirements to create scalable software designs
• Improve performance, reliability, and maintainability across existing systems
• Perform testing, debugging, and issue resolution throughout the development lifecycle
• Document system components, workflows, and code for future maintenance
• Support CI/CD workflows and cloud-based deployments in AWS environments
• Other responsibilities assigned.

Required Qualifications:

• A minimum of ten (10) years of professional software development experience.
• Production-grade programming experience in Java; additional languages a plus.
• Strong understanding of API-driven architectures and distributed systems.
• Experience developing and maintaining microservices in enterprise environments.
• Hands-on experience with AWS services and CI/CD pipelines.
• Strong ability to troubleshoot complex system behaviors and performance issues.
• Ability to clearly communicate and document technical concepts with cross-functional teams.
• Strong communication skills for coordinating across engineering, DevOps, and customer teams.
• Due to program requirements, this role requires US-born citizenship.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with containerized systems (Kubernetes/OpenShift).
• Familiarity with message-driven architectures (RabbitMQ, Kafka, SNS/SQS).
• Experience with relational databases and schema design (Postgres preferred).
• Experience working in secure, on-prem, or air-gapped environments.
• Experience in defense, aerospace, or similar mission‑critical domains.
• Experience creating system diagrams, models, or architecture documentation.

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