Space Surveillance Technical Lead

We are looking for a Space Surveillance Technical Lead who thrives at the intersection of technology people leadership and customer this hybrid technical management role you will lead a small engineering team manage key customer projects and contribute directly to the development of advanced space systems across flight dynamics SSA/SST and mission operations.

Youll act as both a hands-on engineer and a strategic project leader guiding software development steering technical discussions with satellite operators and ensuring customer satisfaction across commercial and institutional missions.

This is a high-impact role with broad ownership. Youll contribute to technical delivery customer success and strategic initiatives including proposals and projects for space sustainabilitySSA/SST and mission operations.

Technical Leadership (50%)

• Lead the design development and operation of space systems including:

  • Orbit determination and propagation

  • Maneuver planning and trajectory optimization

  • SSA/SST processing catalog maintenance and sensor data integration

• Architect implement and review production-grade software using:

  • Python Java FORTRAN

  • Orekit or similar orbit mechanics libraries

• Conduct verification and validation (V&V) with real mission datasets.

Project & Team Leadership (50%)

• Lead a high-performing engineering team (26 people) including mentoring coordinating workloads and guiding technical decisions.

• Drive end-to-end project delivery ensuring technical quality timelines and customer success.

• Work directly with satellite operators and institutional partners to:

  • Capture and refine mission requirements

  • Lead high-level technical discussions

  • Translate operational needs into actionable system features

• Serve as the primary technical point of contact for key accounts building long-term customer relationships.

• Coordinate cross-functional efforts for proposals strategic initiatives and roadmap development.

• . or higher in Aerospace/Space Engineering Computer Science Physics or another relevant technical field.

• Approx. 5 years of experience in the space engineering domain including proven experience in coordinating or leading technical projects in the space domain (flight dynamics SSA/SST mission operations or ground segment software).

• Proven ability to drive full lifecycle software development:

  • Requirements analysis and refinement

  • Architecture definition

  • System and algorithm design

  • Implementation planning

  • Testing integration V&V

  • Deployment and operational follow-up

• Strong background in technical project management including:

  • Prioritization and backlog management

  • Cross-team coordination (engineering product operations)

  • Tracking deliverables risks and milestones

  • Efficient communication with technical and non-technical stakeholders

• Hands-on experience with software engineering in Python Fortran Java or similar and familiarity with modern development practices (CI/CD testing DevOps workflows).

• Ability to work directly with customers to:

  • Lead technical discussions

  • Clarify mission requirements

  • Ensure delivery quality and operational readiness

• Experience providing guidance to small engineering teams including mentoring and task coordination.

• Professional experience in international distributed teams and valid EU work authorization.

Nice-to-have:

• Knowledge of cloud-native architectures and deployment frameworks (Docker Kubernetes AWS/Azure/GCP).

• Familiarity with:

  • Orbit determination libraries (Orekit GMAT or similar)

  • SSA/SST processing pipelines

  • Sensor fusion workflows or catalog maintenance

• Experience in proposal writing project scoping or supporting business development efforts with technical input.

• Background collaborating with space agencies (ESA DLR etc.) or institutional missions.

• Awareness of ground segment operations automated mission planning or mission control workflows.

• With a lean hierarchy and small working groups you define your own way of work including flexible work hours.
• Work on groundbreaking space sustainability challenges with a team of top-tier engineers and scientists.
• Enjoy technical freedom. Influence system architecture research methodologies and data integration approaches.
• Grow continuously with access to training budgets industry conferences and networking opportunities.
• Be part of a strong engineering culturewith regular knowledge-sharing sessions technical deep dives and innovation sprints.
• Great team spirit with company-wide events such as monthly all-hands lunches and social activities like laser tag dinners and team-building outings.