Responsibilities

• Own, drive and develop the high level mission operations concept of operations, implementation, verification and readiness
  • Partner with organizations within Varda to ensure all systems required for successful mission are on track and partnered
  • Own mission operations readiness across the company in preparation for flight, including operator training and mission rehearsals
• Architect, implement and verify procedures, software and software interfaces to operate the mission in flight
  • Partner with software, site reliability and IT teams to ensure end to end system operates as expected
• Build and maintain the primary tools and real-time interfaces used to execute regular spacecraft operations.
  • Develop and implement methods of operational automation, to reduce day-to-day operator responsibilities
  • Take full ownership of the entire lifecycle of software, including rolling out to operations, managing configurations, continuous improvement, and supporting end-users
• Perform duties of lead technical authority during mission operations for both the space and ground segments
  • Focal for customer and internal leadership during critical mission activities
• Provide oversight of nominal on-orbit operations for Varda’s entire fleet of on-orbit and reentry vehicles
  • Monitor health of on-orbit vehicles to ensure any required operator action can be taken safely, as well as any automation or configuration for said monitoring
• Design, architect and implement the operator to ground interface, including command and control, mission planning, mission data processing, and the associated infrastructure to support all activities.
  • Partner closely with Avionics/RF and Software teams to ensure hardware and software feature requirements are designed and implemented as required
  • Own integrated pre-launch ground segment tests to ensure full end to end integrated system operates as planned
• Build secure and resilient software to protect our operations

Basic Qualifications

• B.S. degree in aerospace, mechanical, computer, electrical engineering, physics, or related field and 6 proven years of experience, or advanced degree with 3 years of relevant experience
• Teamwork, communication, and problem solving in a collaborative environment
• Scope projects including requirements capture and initial design trades given open-ended problems
• Understanding of orbital mechanics, modeling and simulation, and software development 
• Experience in using continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) tools
• Proven system engineering and configuration management skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Working knowledge of satellite subsystems, ground systems, mission operations and concept design
• Experience with real-time satellite command and control
• At least one year of professional hands-on development experience with general-purpose programming languages, such as C/C or Python
• Familiarity with configuration management tools such as Git, SVN, or Perforce

Preferred Skills And Experience

• At least two years of leadership experience
• Experience supporting flight test or flying spacecraft
• Ability to continuously manage risk and provide solutions with lean software development techniques
• Experience with external customer briefing/interfacing
• Deep knowledge of satellite systems engineering, including all satellite subsystems
• Guidance, Navigation, and Control; Electrical Power; Thermal Control; Telemetry, Tracking, and Command; Propulsion; etc
• Experience with project management for cradle-to-grave projects
• Experience building, maintaining, or releasing containerized applications or applications hosted in cloud production environments
• Basic understanding and debugging skills relating to network stack protocols
• Enjoys end-user facing roles for support and interfacing with cross-functional teams
• Ability to work quickly and accurately in fast-paced environment during critical launch and mission operations
• Prior work in a technical leadership role for a launch vehicle or satellite development effort
• Prior work in a startup or agile development environment
• Capability to solve complex problems autonomy as an individual or as a member of an integrated team.
• Passion for advancing the commercial space industry

Pay Range

• Salary range: $120,000 - $180,000
• This role is on-site in El Segundo, CA
• Leveling and base salary is determined by job-related skills, education level, experience level, and job performance
• You will be eligible for long-term incentives in the form of stock options and/or long-term cash awards
• Offer compensation also includes the ability to purchase company stock through the Employee Stock Purchase Plan