GOES-R​/SOLAR-Satellite Ground System Engineer

GOES-R/SOLAR-1 Satellite Ground System Engineer

Suitland-Silver Hill, MD, USA

Data Networks Inc is hiring a Satellite Ground System Engineer to provide engineering support for the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R (GOES‑R) series constellation and the Space Weather Observations at L1 to Advance Readiness – 1 (SOLAR‑1) mission as a member of the Engineering and Mission Operations Support Services
-VII (EMOSS‑VII) contract, based in Suitland, MD. The position requires proven education and experience to demonstrate capacity to perform at a high‑level as a Satellite Ground System Engineer. The client is responsible for engineering and mission operations support for environmental monitoring satellites managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Satellite and Product Operations (OSPO).

• Verification of nominal daily operation and performance
• Maintaining a complex but known ground configuration
• Attend daily and weekly coordination meetings
• Assure adequate redundancy among all mission‑critical equipment
• Respond immediately to outages that interrupt data flows
• Delegate ground equipment as needed while maintaining 24/7 operations
• Investigate anomalous alarms and behavior within the ground system
• Document and report major issues that have impacted operations
• Observe critical weather days
• Support spacecraft operations
• Support product generation and distribution
• Communicate effectively with key stakeholders to assure confidence in activities about to take place
• Coordinate and participate in ground software release regression, operational and parallel testing, including monthly IT security patches
• Review and control proposed changes to the operational baseline using configuration management practices
• Develop, document and maintain operational procedures
• Propose new or execute improvements to processes and tools that will increase long‑term reliability, monitoring, and anomaly detection capability
• Provide 24/7 on‑call contingency support to real‑time operations
• Preparation of regular reports and liaison with internal and external personnel
• Provide training to NOAA Satellite Controllers
• Coordinate with many internal and external partners, including the Command and Data Acquisition Station (CDAS) team, NOAA Systems, Support, and IT branches
• Provide on-console engineering support during spacecraft maneuvers and critical operations
• Participate in spacecraft integration and test and contribute to the development and verification of command procedures and mission operations plans and procedures
• Participate in the operational validation of the ground segment, including interface tests, end‑to‑end tests and mission simulations
• Ensure SOLAR‑1 Data Recovery and Delivery mission operations, from data capture and storage on‑board the Observatory to delivery to the end users

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in aerospace engineering or related field, and 2‑4 years of aerospace engineering experience; a Master’s degree in a relevant discipline is equivalent to two years’ experience
• Writing and presentation skills for a wide diverse audience
• Perform contingency real‑time troubleshooting and analysis during anomalies, including real‑time problem identification and resolution, support in case of any in‑orbit anomaly and participation in the investigation of ground system anomalies
• Propose new or execute improvements to tools that will increase long‑term reliability, monitoring, and anomaly detection capability

• Experience using Linux operating systems and especially supporting satellite Ground Systems and real‑time operations
• Support integration of AI/ML, data platforms, and cloud infrastructure into cohesive, mission‑ready tools that can be reused and scaled across satellite operating systems
• Programming in languages such as Python, C++, Visual Basic, Unix Shells, Perl, TCL, Java, Google Scripts
• Configuration management and document management supporting flight operations

Work in a typical office building during a standard 40‑hour week. Occasional deadlines or operational conditions require…