Senior Mission Operations Engineer

About Varda

The environment of space hold the potential to craft products that profoundly enhance life on Earth. Varda is at the forefront of this endeavor, harnessing the unique environment of low earth orbit to produce these innovations and reintroduce them to our world. Our mission transcends mere exploration; we're expanding the economic horizons of humanity.

At Varda, you'll be positioned at the nexus of ambition and expertise. Our seasoned team, with its rich legacy in aerospace and technology, has honed its skills in the corridors of industry giants. Here, your contributions will be both cherished and critiqued by leaders who, with a wealth of experience behind them, are now devoted to the realm of extraterrestrial manufacturing.

While our aspirations soar high, our path is grounded in technical pragmatism and operational viability. Our conceptual operations are crystalline material processing and reentry, backed by years of research and development anchored in the International Space Station's, and commercial space sectors expansive achievements.

Join Varda, and work to finally create a bustling in-space ecosystem.

About This Role

There are many products that improve the quality of life on Earth that can only be manufactured in space. Our job at Varda is to make those products and bring them back down. We at Varda are proud to expand the economic bounds of humankind.

Here, you’ll have the opportunity to work at the intersection of ambition and experience. Our team has deep experience in aerospace and tech. They have honed their crafts in the trenches of major companies. Your work will be valued and evaluated by proven leaders who have chosen to apply their talents to manufacturing in space.

While our vision is big, the steps to get there are technically reasonable and operationally feasible. Our conops are clear and use cases have been proven out over decades of ISS-based research and development.

Join Varda to help leverage space for business.

Responsibilities

• Own, drive and develop the high level mission operations concept of operations, implementation, verification and readiness
  • Partner with organizations within Varda to ensure all systems required for successful mission are on track and partnered
  • Own mission operations readiness across the company in preparation for flight, including operator training and mission rehearsals
• Architect, implement and verify procedures, software and software interfaces to operate the mission in flight
  • Partner with software, site reliability and IT teams to ensure end to end system operates as expected
• Build and maintain the primary tools and real-time interfaces used to execute regular spacecraft operations.
  • Develop and implement methods of operational automation, to reduce day-to-day operator responsibilities
  • Take full ownership of the entire lifecycle of software, including rolling out to operations, managing configurations, continuous improvement, and supporting end-users
• Perform duties of lead technical authority during mission operations for both the space and ground segments
  • Focal for customer and internal leadership during critical mission activities
• Provide oversight of nominal on-orbit operations for Varda’s entire fleet of on-orbit and reentry vehicles
  • Monitor health of on-orbit vehicles to ensure any required operator action can be taken safely, as well as any automation or configuration for said monitoring
• Design, architect and implement the operator to ground interface, including command and control, mission planning, mission data processing, and the associated infrastructure to support all activities.
  • Partner closely with Avionics/RF and Software teams to ensure hardware and software feature requirements are designed and implemented as required
  • Own integrated pre-launch ground segment tests to ensure full end to end integrated system operates as planned
• Build secure and resilient software to protect our operations

Basic Qualifications

• Own, drive and develop the high level mission operations concept of operations, implementation, verification and readiness
  • Partner with organizations within Varda to ensure all systems required for successful mission are on track and partnered
  • Own mission operations readiness across the company in preparation for flight, including operator training and mission rehearsals
•  Architect, implement and verify procedures, software and software interfaces to operate the mission in flight
  • Partner with software, site reliability and IT teams to ensure end to end system operates as expected
• Build and maintain the primary tools