Senior Communications Engineer

Senior Communications Engineer

Astroscale

Harwell, United Kingdom

Astroscale UK is adding a Senior Communications Engineer to join our Avionics team, and work on our ground breaking missions.

Day to day activities will include designing link budgets, antenna analysis, data to ground budgets and communication related Fault Detection, Isolation, and Recovery (FDIR) to name a few. There will also be involvement in validation and verification with the Assembly, Integration and Verification (AIV) team including generating communication unit test procedures.

This role requires someone with the experience, knowledge, and confidence to manage the comms subsystem. We also need a great team player as there will be lots of interaction with other teams such as systems, Command & Data Handling (C&DH), procurement and AIV.

Responsibilities

The successful candidate will be get to be involved in:

• Work package management including:
  • Design Baseline/Architecture of sub system;
  • Requirements Management & VCD.
• Input and review system satellite data link budgets;
• Selection, procurement and supplier management of all communication units including (but not limited to):
  • TxRx units and Antenna;
  • GNSS Antenna.
• Multipath analysis (including any impingement/interference issues);
• ITU regulations support;
• Ground station selection and discussion support to ground team;
• Design and execution of unit level acceptance tests including:
  • Hardware acceptance, basic functional, and performance testing;
  • Design and manufacture of supporting testbeds at unit level.
• The creation and management of resources, schedules and cost estimates that meet applicable requirements, standards and regulations;
• Mentoring and guiding younger members of the communications team when needed.

Essential Skills

• Bachelor or master’s degree in a relevant subject (e.g. Electronics, communications);
• Strong experience in spacecraft communication requirement creation and management;
• Strong experience in creating and management of satellite link budgets;
• Modelling and simulating comms space-to-ground links;
• Strong experience in design and development of spacecraft communication subsystems and their architectures;
• Experience in frequency licensing constraints (ITU) for old and new space applications;
• Be eligible and registered to work within the UK and Europe;
• Experience of communication circuits and hands on testing;
• Experience on communication verification and validation plans and procedures for satellite designs.

Desirable skills

• Good knowledge of overall satellite systems design;
• Experience of antenna design and propagation;
• Detailed understanding of communications link budget analysis and design;
• Familiarity with ITU regulations and licensing processes.