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A satellite company is staffing up the software layer that decides which radar images get processed and delivered, showing that the value in space-based intelligence is increasingly in the ground-side data pipeline rather than the hardware alone.
Senior Software Engineer - SAR Processing Platform
Role highlights:
Job title: Senior Software Engineer - SAR Processing Platform
Location: Espoo, Finland
Department: SAR Processing Platform
Reports to: SAR Processing Platform Team Lead
Employment type: Permanent
Workplace model: Hybrid : 3 days in the office
Employment is subject to applicable security screening (incl. SUPO, where required)
Why this role matters:
As a Senior Software Engineer, you’ll shape the platform that every ICEYE image passes through before a customer sees it. The SAR Processing Platform validates raw radar data, decides when and where to process it, runs the processing workflows, catalogs the products and gates their delivery. You’ll join a small team that owns this orchestration layer end to end, running in the cloud and on on-premises clusters at customer sites, and you’ll help decide where it goes next. The hard problems are scheduling and routing under cost and latency constraints, data integrity across a multi-step pipeline, safe rollouts across many environments, and keeping a system that processes every ICEYE image reliable with a small team.
Who We Are
ICEYE is the world leader in sovereign intelligence from space. We deliver persistent monitoring capabilities to detect and respond to changes in any location on Earth.
ICEYE owns the world’s largest and most advanced SAR (synthetic aperture radar) satellite constellation. To our customers we provide intelligence with unmatched quality, latency and revisit times, in any weather, day or night. To governments who choose to operate their own constellation we provide this proven capability as a sovereign system.
ICEYE-built constellations serve customers in defence and intelligence, environmental monitoring, insurance and emergency management. We enable fast decisions that contribute to a safer future.
Founded and headquartered in Finland, ICEYE operates globally with over 1000 employees across Europe, North America, the Middle East, and Asia-Pacific.
Your day-to-day responsibilities
Own the design of the orchestration layer (scheduling rules, routing between processors, failure handling and resource planning) and build and maintain the backend services and processing workflows behind it. Write the design, argue it with production data, and land it in stages.
Lead incident response for processing incidents, run cross-team root-cause work with the SAR processing and other engineering teams, and make sure postmortem actions close.
Drive platform-wide changes across repositories and environments: multi-release rollouts across cloud and on-prem clusters, migrations that never lose data on first rollout, gradual rollouts and quality gates. Harden access to the platform with least-privilege access to data stores, audit logging across services, and access reviews with Security Engineering.
Review designs and code, pair on hard debugging, and raise the bar on tests, documentation and runbooks. Represent the platform toward SAR processing, other engineering teams, product, DevOps and on-prem customers: turn requests into prioritized work with a business case, and push back with data when needed.
What we’re looking for
Must haves:
5+ years of backend software engineering, including building and operating distributed systems in production, with strong Go plus strong Python or Rust
Deep hands-on Kubernetes experience (resource management, scheduling, node pools and autoscaling, Helm), plus AWS (S3, IAM, EKS) and Terraform
PostgreSQL at depth (performance, zero-downtime migrations, query design) and experience with event-driven and batch pipelines: idempotency, at-least-once delivery, backpressure, large objects in S3
A track record of running production (incident lead, reliability improvements you can quantify) and strong written design communication: you can lay out options, back a choice with data and get a team to agree. Fluent English, a collaborative mindset in a distributed team, and pragmatic use of AI/LLM tools in daily development
Nice to haves:
Argo Workflows or another workflow engine at scale; NATS or Kafka; Rust for data-intensive tooling
Geospatial or remote-sensing data (GeoTIFF, COG, STAC, GDAL), or SAR specifically; on-premises Kubernetes (RKE2 or similar) and restricted deployments
GitOps and observability (Flux and Helm; Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry); security work such as IAM reviews, audit logging and pentest remediation
Application Process
Recruiter Interview (30 mins online)
Hiring Manager Interview (60 mins online)
Technical Interview/ Task ( 60- 90 mins)
Onsite/ Final Interview (60 mins)
Working at ICEYE
At ICEYE, you’ll join a diverse and highly engaged team united by the ambition to make the impossible possible. As a global scale-up, we combine speed and ambition with the opportunity to take real ownership from day one. Your growth, wellbeing, and success are a priority, with continuous professional development, training opportunities, and a culture where collaboration is how we win.
How We Work (Our Values)
Make the impossible possible: We set ambitious goals and stay calm under pressure. We bring grit, optimism, and ownership when things get hard, and we keep moving until we find a way.
Be curious: Go deep, ask questions, listen carefully, and think critically. Understand the “why” behind decisions.
See the big picture: Stay close to what’s happening across the company so you can make better decisions. Consider how your work affects others.
Drive effective teamwork: Create psychological safety, invite different perspectives, and build inclusive teams. There are no bad questions.
Act as one team: We win together. We match tasks to the right owner and stay agile as priorities shift.
Have fun: What we do matters, and it should be enjoyable. Celebrate progress, take pride in results, and share the wins.
Benefits
Our benefits are designed to support your health and wellbeing, at work and beyond. We keep improving them based on employee feedback, and offerings vary by location. Talent Acquisition will confirm what applies for this role and location during the process.
Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
We want ICEYE to be a place where people can be themselves and do great work. Different backgrounds and perspectives make us stronger, which is why we work to create an environment where people feel included, respected, and able to speak up. Whatever your background, we want you to bring your authentic self to the table.
We’re committed to fair, inclusive hiring and equal opportunity. Everyone is welcome to apply. If you need any adjustments or support during the recruitment process, tell us, and we’ll do our best to help.
Apply now to start your ICEYE journey, and help us continue to make the impossible possible together. Read more about ICEYE and working with us at iceye.com.
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