Stratospheric Mission Control Lead & Customer Program Support

About Urban Sky: 

Urban Sky is a venture-backed aerospace startup that pioneers the utilization of the stratosphere and reimagines the way humans view and analyze the earth. We design, build, operate, and sell stratospheric balloon systems, and the data we collect supports a wide range of applications, from real-time wildfire monitoring to urban mapping. Our technology is also employed by government customers including the Department of Defense (DoD), NASA, and others. Urban Sky sends flight vehicles to the stratosphere on a weekly basis. 

Our team consists of engineers, makers, developers, and doers who believe in the power of human potential when passion meets utility within a small, supportive team. At Urban Sky we strive to create a team culture grounded in candor, inclusion, respect and empowerment. 

We aim to build the next chapter of stratospheric history in Denver and are seeking self-starting, open-minded, and hard-working team members. 
 

About The Role: 

This hybrid role will focus on a few key priorities, principally leading real-time Mission Control for all Urban Sky stratospheric flights. Urban Sky flies, on average, 1-2 stratospheric balloon missions per week, from locations across the United States and abroad. Our team has developed advanced mission control software to track and control our stratospheric Microballoons in real-time from our HQ in Denver. This role would serve as the primary Mission Control Lead for all flight operations (i.e. being the actual pilot operator controlling the balloons and payloads in flight). This role requires a thorough understanding of and appreciation for flight/aviation safety, strong attention to detail, the ability to think fast and make sound decisions, the ability to multi-task, always thinking steps ahead, a technical-oriented background, and a very flexible schedule. Urban Sky stratospheric balloon missions sometimes require overnight flight testing (i.e. leading Mission Control from ~10pm – 6am), early start times (i.e. leading Mission Control from 5am – 2pm), “stop-and-go” schedules (i.e. working Mission Control for 10+ hours several days in a row, then going several days or weeks without any missions), etc. In general, the role requires extreme flexibility and schedule accommodation, though you will have several internal team members that can assume Mission Control functions to allow for planned vacations, time off, personal obligations, etc.  

Stratospheric flight operations can be weather dependent and subject to internal R&D and customer demands. Given the ebb and flow of operational needs, and the nature of the Mission Control position (i.e. usually only supporting Mission Control 1 or 2 days per week, maximum), we would ideally also like this role to lead the coordination of Customer Program Support within the DoD segment. This role would report to the Head of Flight Operations in all matters related to Mission Control, and to the CEO for Customer Program Support. This position is based in Denver, Colorado and may require some travel (up to 10%) to provide customer training and/or support customer exercises and demonstrations. 

Key Functions: 

• Lead Mission Control in all aspects from pre-flight, in-flight, and post-flight 

• Serve as Flight Director coordinating directly with ARTCC centers and TRACONs prior to planned launches, during flight as required, and post mission communications 

• Manage and communicate any off-nominal in-flight scenarios that require escalation 

• Participate in weekly Flight Operations meetings, collaborating with the Mission Planners and other departments on the forecasted flight schedule and coverage needs 

• Remotely support the field launch and recovery teams by relaying critical information during the launch/float/landing/recovery process to include assisting with property ownership information and making best efforts to contact relevant parties once flight systems have landed as necessary. 

• Maintain tracking and communications with teams in the field, giving them reliable information, and identifying safe, accessible landing zones as best as possible for safety and expediency to deliver timely, crucial company and customer data.  

• Become the subject matter expert of the Mission Control software, providing detailed feedback to the Software and Physics teams of discrepancies and improvements. 

• Ability to train future Mission Controllers as well as customer users, at times requiring travel to locations to provide in-person training and/or on-site Mission Control support for customer exercises (primarily DoD)