On-orbit Satellite Engineer

About the position

At Viasat, we're on a mission to deliver connections with the capacity to change the world. For more than 35 years, Viasat has helped shape how consumers, businesses, governments, and militaries around the globe communicate. We're looking for people who think big, act fearlessly, and create an inclusive environment that drives positive impact to join our team. Viasat operates 20+ geosynchronous satellites from its US and UK based Satellite Control Centers. A spacecraft operations engineer is required to take a responsible position as part of the Spacecraft Analysis team who perform the on-station spacecraft operations, looking after the health and performance of the satellites for Viasat's current and future satellite fleets.

Responsibilities

• Define, plan and complete operations to manage the satellite configurations to maintain their health, safety and function.
• Assess and report on satellite health and performance by daily monitoring of their status and monitoring of long-term trends in behaviour of on-board units.
• Respond to satellite contingency situations by assessing satellite status, performing the correct triage, identifying the remedial response and directing recovery operations according to a well-defined incident management process.
• Diagnose problems as quickly as possible, determine the underlying root cause of incidents and identify workarounds or permanent solutions to prevent reoccurrence with the spacecraft manufacturer using techniques such as 8D, 5 whys, fault tree/fishbone analysis.
• Maintain satellite operational products such as satellite telemetry and telecommand databases, including alarm limits, to support safe and efficient operations.
• Develop and maintain the reference data sets and software applications including AI and analytics applications required by the Spacecraft Analysis Department.
• Ensure any analyst training plan and accreditation are up to date and provide training, definition of courseware and assessments as required.
• Work with the Viasat Global Space Networks and spacecraft manufacturer engineering support teams to investigate anomalies and develop relevant operational solutions.
• Work on new satellite programmes on systems engineering, operations development, integration and validation activities.
• Respond positively to any other requests that help achieve Viasat's goals.

Requirements

• Science or Engineering university degree or equivalent experience (min. 3 years)
• Previous experience in a related field in the space industry
• Excellent communication skills in English, both written and spoken
• Ability to prioritise work to deliver the Satellite Operations divisional objectives
• Excellent analytical skills resulting in clear and concise explanations of observations and anomalies

Nice-to-haves

• Experience in a satellite operations environment, preferably as a satellite operations engineer
• Degree in a Space Engineering related subject
• Knowledge of design and operations of spacecraft subsystems, such as Power, Thermal, Attitude Control, Electrical and Chemical Propulsion, TTC and Payload subsystems
• Experience of working with spacecraft platforms: Lockheed Martin (preferably Series 4000), TAS Spacebus 4000, Airbus E3000 and subsequent AIRBUS generations, Boeing 702 HP
• Knowledge of one or more programming languages (e.g. Python, R) for data analysis and manipulation
• Experience of working with spacecraft manufacturers and satellite engineering support teams for the specification, development and implementation of satellite specific operations for at least one previous geo-synchronous satellite project
• Knowledge of the satellite design, build and AIT process

Benefits

• Medical, financial, and/or other benefits
• Additional cash or stock incentives may be provided as part of the compensation package