Director of Product, Planetary Variable Infrastructure

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, and The Netherlands.

About the Role:  

Planet is looking for an exceptional Director of Product with a proven background in hiring, mentoring, and leading high functioning product management teams. In addition, with Europe as the strategic location of this role, you will play a key role in Planet’s growth in the European market and cultivating an identity in that market.

As part of Planet’s core business strategy you will bring the value of Earth Observation to a much wider audience than traditional geospatial users. The role sits in the Planetary Variable product organization that is responsible for creating Planetary Variables (PVs), in other words “meaningful measurements of conditions on the surface of the Earth, derived from satellite observations”. You can learn more about what we are building here and here. Your role provides the necessary infrastructure and tooling for internal and external “developer” teams to build, operate and maintain these PVs at scale. You will cultivate Planet’s product strategy and ensure your team properly engages internal and external stakeholders and builds wildly successful, customer-centric products. You're equally at home communicating strategy to executives as you are discussing the technical trade-offs across product managers and your engineering counterpart.

As Director of Product, Planetary Variable Infrastructure, you will be primarily responsible for driving the overarching strategy and execution for building the common infrastructure that Planet’s partners would desire to enable them to easily and efficiently build, and deploy a PV. Moreover, you hire and lead the “Planetary Variable infrastructure" product team responsible for Planet’s innovation in PVs - the team needs to be built out in order to provide support to develop platform capabilities like e.g. tools to enable model and algorithm construction, providing access to a variety of datasets, usage and reporting, change detection alerting, and common visualization and dashboarding. This role is deeply cross-functional, and building positive relationships across Product, Software Engineering, Partnerships, Business Development and Impact will be crucial to your success.

Impact You’ll Own:

• Lead Planet’s overall product strategy related to Planetary Variable Infrastructure
• Build out a world class, customer centric product team. Your ability to plan your organization, find and retain great talent and manage it effectively is critical to success in this position
• Inspire and motivate your team, foster a culture of innovation, and communicate effectively across the organization and with key customers
• Partner with the Product, Engineering and Design peers to build the product roadmaps and help your team build great products
• Drive a customer-centric culture throughout product lifecycle
• Ensure consistent execution of product lifecycle process from concept to launch through management of people and projects.
• Set project priorities and work through team leads to advance projects from development through implementation
• Develop, implement and manage key metrics for your organization.

What You Bring:

• 5+ years in a Product leadership role with demonstrated success developing customer centric data products
• A history of delivering sophisticated products with a solid understanding of machine learning and neural networks
• A proven track record of hiring, mentoring, and leading high functioning product management teams
• A strong quantitative skill-set with a dedication to rigorous data driven decision-making
• Demonstrated experience in building successful cross-functional partnerships and successfully navigating complex stakeholder environments
• A strong growth-mindset and a servant-leadership approach
• Highly tuned emotional-intelligence and deep seated empathy for both engineering teams and customers
• Ability to think strategically and craft a compelling product vision
• Outstanding planning, collaboration, and organizational skills
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Must be energetic, creative, and self-motivated

Benefits While Working at Planet:

• Additional company winter holidays and regular global days off
• Remote friendly work environment and flexible working hours
• Contribution to our growth by offering equity options for employees
• Giving back to the community - one day per quarter for charitable work
• Learning and Tuition Reimbursement
• Regular hack-weeks and meetup events to exchange knowledge
• Home office budget
• Employee Resource Groups providing empowering spaces for connection and mentorship

Some Press About Us: 

Our CEO, Will Marshall featured on TED and featured in a Planet Blog

“Planet: Bringing Space Back Down to Earth”

Tiny, privately owned satellites are changing how we view the Earth features in NBC News

“Planet And Rocket Lab Create Mission Patch To Honor Women In Aerospace” —Planet Blog

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 with diversity, equity and inclusion.  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. 

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 interview process, please call Planet's front office at 669-214-9404 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 Candidate Privacy Notice GDPR Planet Labs Europe, and hereby consent to the collection, processing, use, and storage of my personal information as described therein.