About the Role
As a Senior Technical Program Manager (TPM) at Planet, you will drive Planet's largest, most complex efforts that cross many teams and organizational boundaries. You will act as an accelerant, illuminating the path for teams and owning the predictability of execution through the product lifecycle. You will work closely with team leads across multiple time zones to develop and manage end-to-end program plans, including processes, schedules, metrics and risks, and communicate them clearly to stakeholders.
This role leads internal program management for Planet's solutions in the DACH region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland), starting with a large, multi-year dedicated satellite constellation and sovereign platform deployment for a public-sector customer. You will be the accountable program owner for Product and Engineering, working alongside the customer-facing program manager to turn contract commitments into one coordinated plan across Product, Engineering, Infrastructure and Space Systems. The role grows with the DACH portfolio. Customer meetings and documents are in German, so native German is required. This is a full-time, hybrid role which will require you to work from our Berlin office 3 days per week.
Responsibilities
•Own the internal program plan for DACH deliveries: scope, schedule, incremental milestones with definitions of done, and the dependencies across teams.
•Set up and maintain program governance: who is accountable for each workstream, decision levels and reporting.
•Work daily with Product Managers, Engineering Managers, Tech Leads and other TPMs, and with the customer-facing program manager and Customer Success teams who own the customer relationship.
•Translate customer requirements into clear technical requirements, and work with Product Managers to prioritize requests against the roadmap.
•Run the program's operating rhythm (cross-team syncs, go/no-go decisions, release coordination) so each meeting ends in decisions and owned actions.
•Challenge plans for completeness, accuracy, and fit for purpose, and surface risks and conflicts between commitments, priorities and capacity while they are still small.
•Keep stakeholders from engineering teams to leadership informed of progress, risks and changes, and escalate early when needed.
•Improve ways of working so each future deployment is faster and more repeatable.
Requirements
•6+ years of program management or software development experience in the areas of SaaS, cloud platforms, data products or geospatial systems, ideally including remote sensing and satellite domain knowledge and experience.
•Bachelor's degree in a relevant field.
•Fluency in written and spoken German and professional working proficiency in English, the language of the company.
•Experience leading complex technical programs across a matrixed organization and setting priorities independently, including programs with contractual commitments to external customers.
•Experience with the product lifecycle: concept through development, launch preparation, go-to-market, deprecations, and end-of-life.
•Analytical, problem-solving, and creative thinking skills paired with the ability to communicate findings and recommendations. Equally comfortable explaining your analyses and recommendations to business leaders as you are discussing technical trade-offs with engineers.
•Ability to balance the tactical day-to-day with forward-looking improvements to scale operational efficiencies.
•Experience with public-sector customers in the DACH region.
•Experience with sovereign, private-cloud or on-premises platform deployments.
•Experience with remote sensing, earth observation data, or geospatial systems.
•Experience working with remote, worldwide teams.
•Actively explores AI technologies to automate workflows, improve data, or enhance team productivity.
Compensation & Benefits
The expected starting gross salary range for this role is €77,000—€96,300 EUR. Individual placement within this range is determined objectively based on gender-neutral criteria such as skills, qualifications, and professional experience. This position may also be eligible for discretionary bonuses and/or equity.
•Paid time off including vacation, holidays and company-wide days off
•Employee Wellness Program
•Home Office Reimbursement
•Monthly Phone and Internet Reimbursement
•Tuition Reimbursement and access to LinkedIn Learning
•Equity
•Volunteering Paid Time Off
(Offerings depend on employment type and geographical location, based upon applicable law or company policy.)
About Planet
Planet designs, builds, and operates the largest constellation of imaging satellites in history, delivering an empirical dataset via a cloud-based platform to commercial, environmental, and humanitarian customers worldwide. Planet is a global company with employees working remotely worldwide and from offices in San Francisco, Washington DC, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, and The Netherlands.
