Job Description

Come join us in shaping the future! Get in on the ground floor as the first member of our Mission Operations & Ground Segment team, working on a revolutionary satellite communications system. Build the control center, build the team, then fly the spacecraft.

AscendArc is a venture-backed startup founded to revolutionize the satellite communications industry. We are looking for doers who want to work in a ground-breaking and fast-paced environment. Our success will depend on your energy, skill, and creativity.

Responsibilities

This is a build role before it is an operations role. We have no Mission Control Center, no operations software and no flight control team — you will create all three. You are the technical authority for everything on the ground, and the manager who grows the team that runs it. Our customers are commercial satellite operators, and the ground segment is part of what we sell them: you procure and develop the operations software, use it to fly the spacecraft through launch, electric orbit raising and in-orbit test, then deliver it and the spacecraft to the customer’s own operations team. Expect to do that more than once, so build it to be reused.

Ground segment architecture and build

• Own the ground segment architecture end to end: satellite control center (SCC), flight dynamics system (FDS), mission planning, mission database, data archive, networks and security
• Stand up the Mission Control Center from nothing — facility, consoles, servers, networks, redundancy and a backup control capability — and take it through readiness for flight
• Establish ground station connectivity with commercial and government providers worldwide, and own the technical interfaces and service agreements behind it
• Own space link security: encryption, authentication and key management for command and telemetry
• Design the ground segment for a fleet rather than a single spacecraft — common tooling, reuse across programs, and the ability to support concurrent missions

Ground software — procurement and development

• Set the make/buy line for ground software — what we procure, what we adapt and what we develop in house — and defend those choices
• Own the SCC and FDS procurement end to end: requirements and statements of work, RFI and RFP, technical evaluation, negotiation support and contract technical content
• Flow the customer’s ground segment requirements back-to-back into supplier specifications and contracts, so what we buy satisfies what we owe — including deliverables, documentation, licensing, warranty and support terms
• Manage the ground software suppliers through development as the technical counterpart — design reviews, progress and risk tracking, change control, and resolution of requirement and interface issues
• Own adaptation and configuration of procured products to our spacecraft: mission database, telemetry and command dictionaries, displays, automation, flight dynamics models and orbit determination configuration
• For the ground software we develop ourselves, act as the technical customer: own the requirements, the priorities and the development plan, review the design, and accept each release against what you asked for
• Hold in-house software to the same standard as a procured product — verification, documentation, configuration control and quality — because it ships to the customer under the same contract
• Own factory and site acceptance testing and formal acceptance of every delivery, bought or built
• Own licensing, maintenance, version upgrades and obsolescence across procured and in-house software, both for our own use and for what transfers to the customer

Customer delivery and acceptance

• Own delivery of the SCC and FDS to the customer as a contract deliverable: installation and commissioning at their control center, site acceptance testing, and formal customer acceptance
• Own the ground segment documentation set the contract requires — interface control documents, user and operations manuals, mission database, as-built configuration and verification evidence
• Train and certify the customer’s operations team, and support them through the transition to routine operations
• Own transfer of licenses, warranty and supplier maintenance arrangements to the customer at handover, and define what support we continue to provide afterwards
• Work with our export control officer to confirm that ground software deliverables, supplier arrangements and technical data transfers are authorized for an international customer
• Own the interface to the customer’s ground segment, and lead the Ground Segment Design Review and ground segment acceptance reviews with them
• Represent mission operations and the ground segment at program milestones and customer reviews as the subject matter expert
• Work within the Systems Engineering baseline for requirements, interfaces and technical budgets, and flow ground segment requirements to the spacecraft

Operations preparation and execution

• Develop the operations concept, flight operations procedures, flight rules and contingency plans with the spacecraft subsystem leads
• Validate procedures and the mission database against the flatsat and closed-loop simulator rather than on paper
• Own LEOP, electric orbit raising and in-orbit test operations planning, and staff the Mission Control Center through execution
• Own anomaly response during operations: investigation, recovery, reporting and the changes that follow

Team

• Recruit, build and train the flight operations team — certification, rostering, rehearsals and operational readiness reviews
• Supervise operations and ground systems engineers, set objectives and develop the team as the fleet grows
• Manage subcontracted operations support where we use it, while the architecture and technical authority stay with you

Qualifications

• B.S. or M.S. in Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science or a related discipline; 10+ years in satellite ground segment and/or mission operations
• Demonstrated ownership of a ground segment architecture, including the satellite control center (SCC) and flight dynamics system (FDS)
• Experience procuring and then managing ground software suppliers through development, acceptance and sustainment — not only selecting a product
• Experience delivering a ground system to an external customer as a contract deliverable — installation, site acceptance, documentation, operator training and warranty transfer
• Comfortable working back-to-back between a customer contract and a supplier contract, and holding both sides to what was agreed
• Hands-on experience adapting a commercial SCC or FDS product to a specific spacecraft, including mission database and telemetry/command dictionary build
• Experience directing in-house software development as the technical customer — setting requirements and priorities, reviewing design, and accepting releases against them
• Judgment on where to buy, where to adapt and where to build ground software, and the evidence to defend it
• Experience standing up a mission control center or a major ground system from scratch — not only operating one that already exists
• Experience running or supporting LEOP and in-orbit test, and staffing a control center through a critical phase
• Experience integrating with commercial or government ground station networks worldwide
• Experience building and training an operations team, including procedure development, certification and rehearsal
• Supervisory experience: hiring, setting objectives and developing engineers
• Able to lead a customer-facing design review and hold technical authority in front of an operator customer
• Working knowledge of command and telemetry link security and key management
• Strong plus: GEO communications satellites; electric orbit raising; multi-spacecraft or multi-mission operations; handover of spacecraft to a customer operations team; CCSDS and ECSS standards

Base Salary

The base salary range for this position is $195,000 to $250,000. When determining an individual’s compensation, we consider several factors including skillset, experience, job scope, and current market data, so pay for this role may vary from the amounts listed.

Legal Eligibility to Work

Due to U.S. export control regulations, this position is only open to “U.S. persons.” That means you must be a U.S. citizen, a lawful permanent resident (green card holder), or have refugee/asylee status. Unfortunately, we cannot consider applicants on temporary work visas (such as H-1B, TN, O-1, etc.) for this role.

Equal Employment Opportunity

AscendArc is an equal opportunity employer that does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy and gender identity), national origin, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, genetic information, age, membership in an employee organization, retaliation, parental status, military service, or other non-merit factor or legally protected status.