The posting
Job description
Team & Reporting Line: Flight Operations/Satellite 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
As a Satellite Operator, you sit at the console where our constellation meets the ground. You will be part of the Satellite Operations team, working a shift rotation alongside a small, senior group of operators and reporting to the Flight Operations Team Lead, with a Flight Director on call for every critical decision. Day to day you will fly the spacecraft: monitoring routine passes, executing special requests from internal stakeholders, reacting to off-nominal behaviour with disciplined procedure execution, and driving anomalies through to closure.
You will work shoulder to shoulder with Mission Control, Mission Planning, Flight Dynamics, Ground Segment and the platform and payload engineering teams, which makes this one of the best seats in the company for understanding how the whole mission fits together. Every procedure you author, every automation script you contribute and every anomaly you close makes the fleet safer and increases the volume and quality of thermal data we deliver to customers who depend on it for climate resilience, food security and national security decisions.
Key responsibilities
- Fly the constellation on a shift rota: pass preparation, telemetry monitoring, commanding, command schedule uplink, payload downlink verification and end-of-shift handover reports.
- Execute non-routine and special tasking per applicable flight procedures: priority tasking, calibration and characterization campaigns, payload reconfiguration, onboard software and table uploads, collision avoidance and orbit maintenance.
- Act as first responder to off-nominal events and alarms: diagnose using contingency procedures, place the spacecraft in a safe configuration, and log the event with supporting evidence in the anomaly management system.
- Drive anomalies to closure with platform, payload and ground segment engineering: track corrective actions, prepare and validate recovery activities, and verify the fix on orbit.
- Escalate to the Flight Director, with a clear situation assessment, whenever an event falls outside existing procedures, exceeds operator authority or threatens mission availability.
- Interface with Mission Control, Mission Planning, Flight Dynamics and Ground Segment: validate planning products and pass schedules, coordinate manoeuvres and collision-avoidance actions, and report station or link degradations.
- Write and improve flight procedures, checklists and operational documentation, capturing lessons learned from each anomaly and shift so problems are not solved twice.
- Automate operations with developers: scripting of repetitive tasks, telemetry trending and analysis tools, monitoring dashboards and alerting rules.
- Monitor fleet health and performance trends, raise early warnings on degrading subsystems, and report KPIs such as pass success rate, data volume delivered and anomaly turnaround time.
- Support LEOP and commissioning for new satellites: simulations, operational readiness tests and shift staffing for critical phases.
- Train and onboard new operators, and act as the reference point across the business on fleet capabilities and limits.
Job requirements
About you
Required:
- Degree in aerospace, electrical, mechanical or software engineering, physics or a comparable technical field — or equivalent practical experience in spacecraft operations.
- Hands-on experience operating spacecraft, or comparable experience in a real-time operations.
- Willingness and legal ability to work a rotating shift pattern, including nights, weekends and public holidays, plus on-call availability during critical mission phases.
- Solid working understanding of spacecraft subsystems (AOCS, EPS, TT&C, OBDH, thermal, payload) and of basic orbital mechanics, ground station passes and link budgets.
- Rigorous, procedure-driven mindset: you follow written procedures exactly, you know when a procedure no longer applies, and you stop and escalate instead of improvising on a live spacecraft.
- Ability to stay calm, structured and decisive under time pressure during anomalies, and to make clear risk-based calls with incomplete information.
- Basic scripting or coding ability (Python preferred) to automate recurring tasks and analyse telemetry.
- Excellent written discipline: accurate shift logs, anomaly reports and handovers that a colleague can act on without asking a single question.
- Strong verbal communication and teamwork across disciplines, with the confidence to challenge and be challenged.
- Professional proficiency in English (C1 working language).
- Eligibility to work in the EU and willingness to undergo a national security clearance process, as required by our defence and government programmes.
Nice to Have:
- Experience with a mission control system such as SCOS-2000, or similars, or an in-house MCS, including database/telemetry-definition maintenance.
- Experience operating a multi-satellite constellation, ideally in LEO Earth observation, and with the scaling challenges that come with it.
- Participation in a LEOP, in-orbit commissioning campaign or satellite handover from the manufacturer.
- Familiarity with flight dynamics products and tools (Orekit, GMAT, STK, or equivalent): orbit determination, manoeuvre planning, conjunction assessment and collision-avoidance workflows.
- Confident Python development beyond scripting — version control with Git, code review, testing and CI — plus Linux comfort and experience building telemetry dashboards (Grafana, InfluxDB, SQL or similar).
- Knowledge of CCSDS standards (TM/TC, space packets, CFDP) and of ground station network services.
- Experience authoring flight operations procedures, running operational readiness tests or building operator training and simulation campaigns.
- Exposure to space debris mitigation, licensing and regulatory reporting obligations for satellite operators.
- Awareness of thermal infrared or optical payload operations, calibration and data quality concepts.
- An existing national security clearance, or previous experience working in a defence or dual-use environment.
- Additional European languages, in particular German or French.
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.
