Technical Program Manager, Trade Compliance

We are looking for a Technical Program Manager (TPM) for Trade Compliance to embed directly within our product and software development and data analytics teams. Your mission is to drive compliance to enable product and software delivery in a rapid development environment. You will take complex regulatory requirements and turn them into pragmatic, scalable product features and workflows.

Because our cutting-edge products serve a diverse client base ranging from commercial and Civil Government customers to the military and intelligence community, you will navigate the complex intersection of ITAR/EAR and OFAC/sanctions requirements as well as globally applicable equivalents. You will ensure trade compliance requirements are built into our product and software development architecture and deployment workflows to support product team innovation.

This is a full-time, hybrid role which will require you to work from our Washington, DC or Denver, CO office 3 days per week.

- Drive and enable trade compliance as a scalable, structured framework rather than ad-hoc requirements, enabling compliance to be built seamlessly into a rapid development environment.

- Collaborate with product managers and engineers to understand product roadmaps and product lifecycle, and drive trade compliance requirements.

- Apply a pragmatic, risk-based approach to compliance. Evaluate technical trade-offs and guide product teams on how to meet ITAR/EAR without sacrificing speed-to-market.

- Manage the contract and relationship with compliance vendors.

- Conduct and document systematic Export Classification Orders of Review (e.g., ITAR and EAR) for complex data analytics and software solutions.

- Establish and maintain rigorous contemporaneous documentation tracking design intent/decisions and their impact on the export controls associated with the product/solution.

- To ensure ITAR/EAR compliance, design, implement, and audit strict technical access controls to govern product development work amongst US and non-US based software development teams based upon product/software classification.

- Work with product teams to develop Know Your Customer (KYC) and restricted party screening processes and workflows to tie into Planet's restricted party screening solution and ensure compliance with OFAC/sanctions requirements (and applicable global equivalents).

- 4 to 6 years of relevant experience in export controls, international trade compliance, or regulatory compliance program management within a high-tech or aerospace environment.

- Practical knowledge of ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) and EAR (Export Administration Regulations), specifically as they apply to software, dual-use items, encryption, and satellite/geospatial data analytics.

- Technical Vocabulary: Ability to understand and converse fluently in "product language" (e.g., APIs, cloud infrastructure, containerization, and data pipeline architecture) to effectively translate across product/engineering roadmaps and compliance.

- Experience with the product life cycle: 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 working inside dynamic software engineering environments: CI/CD pipelines, cloud infrastructure, and Agile methodologies.

- Experience with remote sensing, earth observation data, or geospatial systems.

- Demonstrated success in optimizing processes and tools to scale development cycles.

- Proactive approach to learning and applying emerging regulatory standards to product development.