Senior Mission Operations Engineer

Astroscale UK is looking for an experienced Senior Mission Operations Engineer to join our team in Harwell. We require an additional person to join our team to take an active role in all phases of Astroscale’s current and future missions, such as ELSA-M and COSMIC.

This position offers a great opportunity for someone who is looking to take the next step in their career, as the responsibilities cover a wide variety of tasks that would normally be split between the traditionally separated roles of Spacecraft Operations Engineers, Spacecraft Controllers, Analysts, Mission Manager, Operations Preparation Engineers and System Engineers. The successful candidate will be expected to perform at a high level across a broad range of activities and mission phases.

We are looking for a candidate with a significant wealth of knowledge and experience in all aspects of both operations preparation activities and mission operations. Work may include involvement in multiple missions, from the operations aspects of feasibility studies; contribution to Space Situational Awareness projects with academic, industrial, government agency and defence ministry partners; mission development from phase 0/A through rehearsals, LEOP and mission execution, to end of life operations; and ongoing development of mission control facilities and processes.

There is a lot of potential for the right person to make a lasting impact on how Astroscale employs novel operations concepts and technologies to operate a growing fleet of missions within a small and focussed team. Initiative, innovation and the ability to rapidly see ideas through from conception to implementation are essential. An understanding of industry standards, best practice and requirements engineering will be advantageous.

The candidate will be expected to contribute to multiple projects simultaneously, taking a pro‑active approach to their time and task management.

This is predominantly a 9-to-5 role with a hybrid office- and home-based working pattern. However, there will be periods when longer days are required, as well as needing to be on-site in the MCC for consecutive days or weeks, such as when we are executing a critical mission phase.

Responsibilities

• Act as an operations technical lead for missions and projects.
• Provide guidance and mentoring to less experienced team members via collaborative involvement in ongoing projects and missions.
• Perform routine and critical real‑time spacecraft operations.
• Identify, define and potentially develop operational tools for efficient and safe operations.
• Act as Mission Manager, Spacecraf Operations Engineer (SOE), Mission Planning, and Spacecraft Controller (SpaCon) as required during operations for all mission phases. To ensure robustness and redundancy in our small operations team, all members are expected to rotate roles continually.
• Develop and participate in operations support functions, e.g. planning and scheduling processes, on‑call rota, coordination with spacecraft engineering, flight dynamics and ground systems teams, ground station providers, etc.
• Develop, validate and maintain and execute mission operations procedures, system validation tests, and operations software tools and scripts.
• Prepare spacecraft user manuals, mission operations plans, and other documentation.
• Provide operations expertise at system, subsystem and unit level, supporting ongoing mission development, bid proposals and other activities as required.
• Help to prepare and deliver mission operations training and SATSIM rehearsal campaigns.
• Contribute to the development of mission operations concepts, identifying functional needs across space and ground segments to fulfil the mission design.
• Contribute to Operations Preparation Team activities, including operability requirements processes, operations concept development, FDIR and flight software functionality analysis and implementation.
• Contribute to mission review cycles (PDR, CDR, ORR, etc), reliably predicting and addressing operational concerns during the mission development process.
• Propose and develop operational solutions to enable a small team of operations engineers to control multiple in‑flight spacecraft with minimal workload overhead. The ability to envisage novel operational approaches will be required.
• Perform health and performance trend analysis at system, sub‑system and unit level.
• Investigate spacecraft anomalies and participate in anomaly resolution process.

Essential Skills

• University degree in a relevant engineering or scientific discipline.
• Minimum 5 years of demonstrable satellite industry experience, preferably in real‑time spacecraft operations as part of a flight control team operating a Low Earth Orbit (LEO) mission through the complete life cycle.
• Comprehensive knowledge of satellite subsystems, in particular AOCS/GNC or On Board Data Handling.
• Familiarity with the operation of mission control systems, in particular procedure development, monitoring and control, mission planning, on‑board software management, configuration management and simulator facilities.
• Experience of satellite performance monitoring and reporting, including anomaly analysis and resolution in liaison with industry partners.
• Ability to operate without error in a calm and disciplined manner during high stress situations.
• Ability to logically identify problems, perform root cause analysis and implement appropriate solutions in a timely manner.
• Detail orientated and able to work using own initiative with limited supervision, as well as alongside other team members.
• Able to conceptualise and deliver novel spacecraft operations concepts to meet the demands of Astroscale’s multiple parallel projects and missions with a small team of engineers
• Eligible to gain, or current holder of, security clearance at SC or higher.

Desirable skills

• Familiarity with mission control systems, preferably SCOS‑2000 based.
• Experience with systems engineering aspects of spacecraft operations.
• Experience of formation‑flying or close‑proximity satellite operations will be advantageous.
• Familiarity with operations preparation tools.
• Knowledge of flight dynamics and orbital mechanics.
• Familiarity of relevant ECSS standards relating to Ground Systems and Operations.

Benefits

• Competitive base salary
• Opportunity to work with a highly talented, diverse & dynamic international team with cutting edge technology
• Flexible working around core hours in a friendly and supportive environment
• Optional 9/75 working pattern
• Hybrid working available (dependent on individual role requirements)
• 25 days holiday (increasing yearly up to a maximum of 28 days) + 8 days Bank Holiday
• Life insurance and long‑term sick pay
• Private healthcare (taxable benefit)
• Relocation allowance considered
• State of the art office and cleanroom facility
• Regular social events

Location

Astroscale UK (Harwell).

About Astroscale

Astroscale is the global leader in on-orbit servicing, dedicated to the secure and sustainable development of space. The company delivers a variety of innovative and scalable on-orbit servicing solutions, including life extension, refurbishment, upgrades, in‑situ space situational awareness, end‑of‑life, and active debris removal. Since its first successful launch in March 2021, Astroscale has proven rendezvous and proximity operations technologies in orbit during the ELSA‑d and ADRAS‑J missions. Astroscale spacecraft have been selected for pioneering missions with JAXA, the U.S. Space Force, the European Space Agency, the UK Space Agency, and Eutelsat. As more satellite operators adopt on‑orbit servicing to routinely inspect, relocate, remove, and extend the life of spacecraft, the potential of a circular space economy — and a future of no waste in space — is being unlocked. Headquartered in Japan, Astroscale has a global presence with subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, the United States, France, and Israel. Find out more about Astroscale at

At Astroscale UK we pride ourselves on our inclusive culture. Our essential criteria are based solely on the requirements necessary to perform the role. If any criteria could present a barrier, we are open to discussing reasonable adjustments and are committed to ensuring an inclusive recruitment process. Astroscale UK is also open to supporting job share arrangements, to further our flexible working offering.

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