Principal Satellite Ground Segment Architect 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. BlackSky is looking for a talented system architect, in support of the Chief Technology Office to help shape and drive the direction and realization of future BlackSky space and ground system capabilities. This role will play an instrumental part in future innovation and supporting BlackSky's position as a leader in real-time geospatial intelligence. BlackSky is looking for multi-faceted individuals with a strong engineering background who can work across diverse stakeholder sets to develop and guide solutions for challenging problems and complex customer missions. This is a hands-on role and you will be working across teams to evolve our current systems and technologies to align with future BlackSky requirements, capabilities, and strategic direction. This role reports to the VP, Product Architecture and while we would strongly prefer candidates near either our Herndon, VA office we may also consider remote candidates in certain states. Responsibilities: Architect, design, and manage requirements for As-Is and Target architectures for systems and sub-systems within BlackSky's Ground Segment. Distill unified requirements and system design across disparate major customers and programs, product roadmap, and BlackSky Stategic vision. Communicate with internal and external stakeholder and translate requirements into engineering specifications within the BlackSky architecture. Understand the interactions between systems, applications, and services within the architecture and evaluate the impact of changes or additions including risks and resource implications. Ensure the accuracy and completeness of BlackSky architecture documentation. Work closely with developers, engineers, and the product team to develop road maps for system capabilities, align development plans, and ensure effective capability integration across space and ground systems and subsystems. Work with engineering teams on elements of system design including resource requirements, interfaces and data models, enterprise integration patterns, system and sub-system capabilities, standards and best practices, etc. Support the capture of strategic opportunities and execution of strategic programs by representing technical capabilities of the architecture and devising potential solutions to support both new organizations and provide new mission capabilities . Act as liaison between technical and non-technical departments, facilitating cross-team collaboration and understanding. Organize and track projects, proactively manage risks, manage project escalations, prioritize tasks, and meet specific business objectives. Collaborate with business managers and technical groups to address important customer issues and find innovative solutions to difficult problems Develop models and analyze data to evaluate tradeoffs and support the decision-making process. Other job-related duties as assigned. Required Qualifications: Minimum of 12 years of related work experience with at least five (5) years in systems architecture