Global Ground Station Site Manager - Mission Operations

Lynk•Chantilly, VA

10d•Onsite

About The Position

Lynk is seeking a Global Ground Station Site Manager to lead the planning, deployment, and lifecycle management of its global space-to-ground sites. This role is responsible for the entire deployment process, from supporting site selection and managing vendor/teleport partnerships to coordinating procurement, overseeing installation, conducting acceptance testing, ensuring operational handover, and managing lifecycle performance. The manager will also play a key role in structuring Ground Station-as-a-Service (GSaaS) partnerships with major operators to enhance capacity, resilience, and geographic reach. The position requires close collaboration with various internal teams (Ground Station Systems Engineering, Ground Systems Software, Ground Site Operations, Mission Operations, Telecom) as well as external vendors and site partners. While experience in program management of space-to-ground infrastructure is desired, the role demands curiosity, ownership, and motivation, with an emphasis on bringing structure, visibility, and execution discipline to a dynamic ground station deployment environment.

Requirements

10+ years delivering complex telecom, satellite ground segment, teleport, SATCOM, network infrastructure, or similar operational infrastructure programs.
Experience managing multi-site deployment programs involving vendors, engineering teams, operations teams, schedules, budgets, logistics, and operational readiness.
Strong vendor, contract, SLA, and partner management experience, with a track record of driving accountability across external and internal teams.
Working knowledge of satellite ground systems, teleports, RF systems, networking, power/HVAC, site infrastructure, and operational support models.
Familiarity with licensing, permitting, spectrum coordination, civil works, and the regulatory environment for satellite communications.
Comfortable with budgets, schedules, procurement coordination, logistics, executive reporting, and periodic global travel.
Strong communication skills with the ability to translate technical, operational, vendor, and schedule risks into clear decision-ready updates.
Demonstrated ability to bring structure to ambiguous environments and drive execution across teams that do not directly report to the role.
Must be a U.S. citizen or national, lawful permanent resident (green card holder), refugee, or asylee, or eligible to obtain necessary U.S. Department of State authorizations due to ITAR requirements.

Nice To Haves

PMP or similar project/program management certification.
Prior hands-on teleport, ground station, antenna, satellite gateway, or SATCOM infrastructure deployment experience.
Experience with GSaaS providers, teleport operators, satellite operators, telecom operators, or managed network service providers.
Experience establishing site acceptance criteria, readiness reviews, operational handover processes, vendor scorecards, or SLA performance management.
Familiarity with ITSM, change management, incident management, problem review boards, or operational readiness governance.

Responsibilities

Drive ground station site selection activities with cross-functional teams, balancing link needs, latency, resilience, cost, backhaul, regulatory constraints, operational supportability, and deployment schedule.
Coordinate permitting, licensing, spectrum, civil works, and EHS activities with legal, compliance, engineering, vendors, and site partners.
Negotiate and manage teleport, vendor, and GSaaS contracts and SLAs aligned to availability, latency, support windows, spares, escalation paths, and response times.
Own deployment plans, including budget, schedule, logistics, procurement coordination, shipping, build planning, integration readiness, antenna installation coordination, and site acceptance.
Establish standardized operating procedures, acceptance criteria, readiness gates, operational handover packages, runbooks, spare/maintenance plans, and support models.
Establish a vendor performance framework, deployment risk register, and reporting cadence covering milestones, blockers, mitigations, readiness status, and operational performance.
Coordinate cross-functional evaluation of next-generation hardware, GSaaS capabilities, teleport options, and alternative site designs to improve cost, resiliency, throughput, and operational supportability.
Partner with Ground Station Systems Engineering and Ground Systems Software to define required site telemetry, alarms, control points, interface requirements, and operational visibility needed for high-quality Mission Operations support.
Support transition of new or upgraded ground station capabilities into Mission Operations, ensuring MOC personnel understand site capabilities, limitations, escalation paths, and first-level response procedures.
Deliver new ground station sites or GSaaS capabilities into service with documented acceptance, clear ownership, and operational handover within the first 12 months.
Execute or support GSaaS and teleport partner agreements with measurable SLA expectations, escalation paths, and performance reporting within the first 12 months.
Establish a standardized deployment kit/BOM and repeatable “site in a box” process that reduces deployment variability and improves schedule predictability within the first 12 months.
Develop a vendor performance scorecard and regular review process to track service quality, address issues, and ensure vendors consistently deliver contracted availability within the first 12 months.
Publish or contribute to an integrated Ground Station CONOPS and playbook for transitioning services to new sites and adding new capacity to the network within the first 12 months.
Train or coordinate training for Mission Operations Center personnel on first-level response to ground station issues, escalation paths, and site-specific operational constraints within the first 12 months.