Application Guide

How to Apply for Senior Software Engineer

at Planet

🏢 About Planet

Planet operates the world's largest fleet of Earth-imaging satellites, providing daily, global coverage that empowers environmental monitoring, agriculture, and disaster response. Working here means contributing to meaningful, mission-driven technology that has a tangible impact on how we understand and manage our planet.

About This Role

As a Senior Software Engineer on the infrastructure team, you'll design and maintain the core platform that powers Planet's satellite data pipeline, focusing on Infrastructure-as-Code, Kubernetes, and observability. This role is critical for ensuring Planet's services are secure, scalable, and reliable, enabling scientists and customers to access timely Earth imagery.

💡 A Day in the Life

You'll start by checking dashboards for system health and SLO compliance, then join a standup with the infrastructure team to discuss ongoing work. The rest of the day might involve writing Terraform modules for a new service, collaborating with a software team to optimize their CI/CD pipeline, or troubleshooting a Kubernetes issue in a production cluster. You'll also spend time reviewing code and mentoring junior engineers on best practices.

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Interview Prep

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🎯 Who Planet Is Looking For

  • You have 4+ years in Platform Engineering, DevOps, or SRE, with deep hands-on experience managing Kubernetes clusters in production (GCP or AWS).
  • You are proficient in Go or Python and have built CI/CD pipelines using GitLab, ArgoCD, or similar tools, embracing GitOps principles.
  • You have a strong foundation in Linux systems and have authored Terraform modules to provision cloud infrastructure (GCP preferred).
  • You are passionate about developer experience (DevEx) and have collaborated with software teams to improve how they deploy and observe their services.

📝 Tips for Applying to Planet

1

Tailor your resume to highlight IaC (Terraform), Kubernetes, and observability (Grafana, SLOs) experience – use exact keywords from the job description.

2

Include a link to a GitHub repo or a blog post where you show a complex infrastructure project you designed (e.g., a multi-cluster Kubernetes setup with GitOps).

3

Mention any experience with satellite data, geospatial systems, or environmental tech – even tangential – to show alignment with Planet's mission.

4

In your cover letter, explicitly connect your past work to Planet's impact: e.g., 'At my previous company, I built a platform that processed 10TB of sensor data daily – similar to Planet's satellite imagery pipeline.'

5

If you have experience with GCP, emphasize it; if not, show you can quickly learn by highlighting cross-cloud adaptability.

✉️ What to Emphasize in Your Cover Letter

["Your passion for using technology to solve environmental challenges and how Planet's mission resonates with you.", 'Specific examples of designing scalable infrastructure with Kubernetes and Terraform, including challenges you overcame.', 'How you improved developer velocity or reliability (e.g., reducing deployment time, improving SLOs) in your previous roles.', 'Your collaborative approach – working with software teams to enhance their DevEx, not just building infrastructure in isolation.']

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🔍 Research Before Applying

To stand out, make sure you've researched:

  • → Read Planet's recent blog posts about their satellite technology and data platform (e.g., 'Planet's Approach to Scalable Infrastructure').
  • → Understand the basics of how satellite imagery is captured, downlinked, and processed – this will help you grasp the data pipeline requirements.
  • → Check Planet's engineering culture by looking at their GitHub (e.g., open-source projects like 'Planet SDK for Python') and their tech stack (GCP, Kubernetes, etc.).
  • → Review their investor or news coverage to understand their market position and recent milestones (e.g., new satellite launches, partnerships).

💬 Prepare for These Interview Topics

Based on this role, you may be asked about:

1 Design a multi-tenant Kubernetes cluster for a data pipeline that processes satellite imagery – discuss security, scalability, and cost optimization.
2 Walk through a time you improved observability using Grafana and SLOs: how did you define SLOs, what tools did you use, and what impact did it have?
3 How would you handle a critical incident where a Kubernetes node failure causes data loss in the satellite ingestion pipeline?
4 Explain your experience with GitOps: how do you manage Terraform state and ArgoCD applications across multiple environments?
5 Tell us about a time you collaborated with a software team to improve their CI/CD workflow – what changes did you propose and what was the outcome?
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⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid

  • Don't submit a generic resume without highlighting IaC and Kubernetes – the job explicitly requires these skills, and missing them will get your application filtered out.
  • Avoid being vague about your impact: instead of 'managed Kubernetes clusters,' say 'managed 50-node Kubernetes clusters across 3 regions, reducing deployment time by 40%.'
  • Don't overlook the developer experience aspect – if you only talk about infrastructure without mentioning collaboration with software teams, you'll miss a key requirement.

📅 Application Timeline

This position is open until filled. However, we recommend applying as soon as possible as roles at mission-driven organizations tend to fill quickly.

Typical hiring timeline:

1

Application Review

1-2 weeks

2

Initial Screening

Phone call or written assessment

3

Interviews

1-2 rounds, usually virtual

✓

Offer

Congratulations!

Ready to Apply?

Good luck with your application to Planet!

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