Satellite Platform Operations Engineer

Job description

Team & Reporting Line: Flight Operations

Our Mission  

At constellr, we use thermal intelligence from space to understand what is happening on Earth - where, when and at scale. Our satellite constellation delivers high-resolution land surface temperature data, giving governments, defence organisations, commercial operators and global institutions the intelligence they need to monitor change, assess risk and make better-informed decisions.

From national security and critical infrastructure to agriculture and climate resilience, constellr turns temperature into actionable intelligence for a changing world.

Your Role

You will join constellr's Flight Operations team as Satellite Platform Operations Engineer - the technical contact of the spacecraft bus across a growing thermal infrared constellation. You are the team's reference point for everything platform-side: how each satellite is configured, how it behaves in orbit, how we operate it day to day, and how we recover it when it misbehaves. You will act as technical interface to our Platform Provider, and work cross-functionally with Satellite Operations, Mission Control, and Flight Dynamics - so platform constraints are designed around rather than discovered in flight.

The role spans the full arc of a satellite's life. You will build the flight operations procedures, dashboards, and alerting our operators depend on; support LEOP and run platform commissioning alongside the Platform Provider; and train the team on both the flatsat and the real spacecraft. As the constellation scales from single satellites to a fleet, the standards you set decide how operations scale with it. Success looks like each satellite commissioned faster than the last, anomalies caught by an alert rather than by a customer, contingencies rehearsed before they are needed, and a satellite operations function that can run the platform confidently without you in the room - directly protecting the continuity of the land surface temperature data our defence, government, and commercial users rely on.

Key responsibilities

• Involve in the technical relationship with our Platform Provider: day-to-day management, coordination of platform activities, and escalation of platform issues on behalf of Flight Operations.
• Create, validate, and maintain platform Flight Operations Procedures (FOPs) and automation scripts, and keep them current as the platform and constellation evolve.
• Write and maintain platform contingency procedures, and rehearse them with the satellite operations function so recovery actions are proven before they are needed in flight.
• Own satellite platform configuration storage - the authoritative record of each spacecraft's platform configuration across the fleet.
• Plan and execute platform firmware and software updates in orbit, including rollback strategy and post-update verification.
• Provide platform inputs to the mission MIB / telemetry and command database, and verify correctness against the provider's specifications.
• Define platform Grafana dashboards and the alert set that go with them, so platform health is visible and off-nominal behaviour is caught automatically.
• Investigate platform anomalies end to end: triage, root cause, corrective action, and follow-up with the Platform Provider where needed.
• Participate in platform commissioning activities for each new satellite, and coordinate LEOP platform operations together with the Platform Provider.
• Write and maintain platform operations procedures and documentation, and build satellite platform operations content into our documentation tooling.
• Train the Flight Operations team on the platform and on Platform Provider ways of working, including flatsat operations (new FOPs, ADCS simulator, and similar test campaigns).
• Feed operational lessons learned back into platform design, procurement, and provider requirements as the constellation scales.

Job requirements

About you  

Required:  

• Degree in aerospace, electrical, or software engineering, physics, or a comparable technical field.
• 3+ years of hands-on satellite operations experience covering the spacecraft platform / bus - LEOP, commissioning, or routine operations of an operational mission.
• Practical knowledge of platform subsystems and their operational behaviour: ADCS, power, thermal, OBC and on-board software, and TT&C.
• Demonstrated experience writing and validating flight operations procedures and contingency procedures, and executing them against a real or simulated spacecraft.
• Working knowledge of telemetry and command databases (MIB / TM-TC database) and of satellite operations control systems.
• Scripting ability for operations automation and telemetry analysis (Python preferred).
• Experience with telemetry monitoring, dashboarding, and alert definition (Grafana or equivalent).
• Proven anomaly investigation skills: structured troubleshooting, root cause analysis, and closing the loop with corrective action.
• Experience working directly with an external platform supplier or prime as a technical counterpart.
• Strong technical documentation discipline and the ability to train and coach colleagues on procedures and tooling.
• Fluent English, and willingness to support critical operations phases (LEOP, commissioning, anomalies) outside standard working hours on a planned basis.

Nice to Have: 

• Experience operating a multi-satellite constellation, and scaling procedures from one spacecraft to a fleet.
• Flatsat or engineering-model test campaign experience, including ADCS simulator work and FOP validation on hardware-in-the-loop setups.
• Experience with in-orbit firmware / on-board software update campaigns.
• Familiarity with CCSDS / ECSS packet standards and PUS services.
• Exposure to optical or thermal infrared Earth observation missions.
• Experience building operational automation, or driving a shift from manual to lights-out operations.
• Familiarity with documentation-as-code and wiki tooling (Confluence, Git-based docs).
• Experience with Git and Unix-based servers.
• German or French language skills, useful across our European sites.

Why join constellr?

• High-Impact National Security Mission:  Be part of an ambitious mission to launch the world’s first commercial thermal infrared constellation, delivering sovereign-grade "behavioural" intelligence from space to close critical blind spots for defence, intelligence, and maritime surveillance agencies.
• Fast-Paced "New Space" Innovation:  Work at the leading edge of a rapidly evolving defence sector. By leveraging modern, agile New Space methodologies, you will help design, build, and deploy dual-use thermal payloads into operational orbit at a speed and scale that traditional aerospace models simply cannot match.
• Broad Interdisciplinary Exposure:  Accelerate your professional growth by collaborating daily with a diverse, international cohort of astrophysicists, software developers, and defence-system engineers.
• Inclusive & Scientific Culture:  Join a high-trust team deeply committed to diversity, inclusion, and scientific excellence, where academic curiosity is paired with high autonomy and a flat hierarchy.
• Financial Upside & Well-being:  Benefit from a Virtual Share Option Plan (VSOP) for permanent employees, giving you a true stake in the company's growth, alongside highly flexible hybrid working models.