Head of AOCS

ReOrbit; Helsinki; On-site; EUR 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Lunch vouchers

Occupational health care

Relocation support

Job summary

A leading space technology firm in Helsinki is seeking a Head of AOCS to lead the development of Attitude and Orbit Control Systems across their spacecraft portfolio. This pivotal role involves guiding the entire life cycle of AOCS, ensuring robust performance from design through to in-orbit operations. The ideal candidate will have over 10 years of experience in satellite engineering and a proven record leading successful teams. Benefits include health insurance, lunch vouchers, and team activities focused on collaboration.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in satellite design or related engineering roles.
• 5+ years leading engineering teams with a track record of delivering flight hardware on schedule.
• Proven responsibility for AOCS on at least two successful spacecraft programmes.

Responsibilities

• Lead the end-to-end development of AOCS across all missions.
• Own system-level AOCS design decisions across multiple domains.
• Build and mentor a high-performing AOCS team.

Skills

Experience in satellite design

Leadership in engineering teams

AOCS performance understanding

Designing control laws

Spacecraft dynamics expertise

Debugging AOCS issues

Flight software implementation

Job description

ReOrbit is looking for an experienced and driven Head of AOCS to lead the development and execution of Attitude and Orbit Control Systems across our spacecraft portfolio.

This is a critical leadership role at the heart of our satellite development programmes, with responsibility spanning the full life cycle - from early mission definition through to launch, commissioning, and in-orbit operations. You will play a key role in ensuring our spacecraft meet the demanding pointing, stability and orbit control requirements needed to deliver next generation space data relay capabilities.

It’s an exciting opportunity to join a fast growing company and shape both the technical direction and the team responsible for one of the most critical subsystems on our spacecraft.

Responsibilities

• Lead the end to end development of AOCS across all missions, from concept and design through to in-orbit operations
• Define and maintain robust pointing, stabilisation, and orbit control architectures aligned with payload and communication performance requirements
• Own system-level AOCS design decisions, balancing performance, robustness, and operational complexity across avionics, propulsion, power, structures, and thermal domains
• Lead the selection, sizing, and integration of AOCS sensors and actuators (e.g. star trackers, IMUs, sun sensors, magnetometers, reaction wheels)
• Drive cross-functional collaboration with Payload, Communications, Flight Software, and Operations teams, particularly around mode transitions and safe-mode strategies
• Build, lead, and mentor a high-performing, geographically distributed AOCS team, establishing standardised workflows and engineering processes
• Ensure rigorous verification and validation of AOCS designs at both subsystem and system level
• Support recruitment, development and retention of top AOCS talent as the organisation scales

Skills and Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in satellite design or related engineering roles
• 5+ years of experience leading engineering teams with a track record of delivering flight hardware on schedule
• Proven end-to-end responsibility for AOCS on at least two medium to large spacecraft programmes that have successfully reached orbit and achieved long mission lifetimes (GEO experience strongly preferred)
• Strong understanding of real-world AOCS performance, including lessons learned from in-orbit anomalies or near misses
• Hands on experience designing, tuning, and validating AOCS control laws on flight hardware
• Deep expertise in spacecraft dynamics, estimation, and control applied to operational systems
• Demonstrated experience integrating AOCS sensors and actuators, and resolving real-world challenges such as misalignment, noise, saturation, and timing delays
• Track record of debugging and recovering AOCS issues during system-level testing or in-flight operations
• Experience supporting high-accuracy pointing payloads (e.g. optical, RF, intersatellite links)
• Proven experience delivering AOCS flight software implementations

Benefits

• Challenging but rewarding environment – you will thrive if you are always reflecting on how to make things better. Your ideas will be heard.
• Ambitious and supportive network of people, who are motivated to change the space industry, bringing expertise from both classic and new space.
• Benefits such as lunch vouchers, events, parties, occupational health care, and additional health insurance but most importantly a possibility to be part of a unique and diverse team, connected by similar mindset and sense of humor.
• We like to spend time together! You can choose activities whichever is to your liking – runOrbit, climbOrbit; become ping pong or board games champion.
• We support relocation and integration into Finnish society.