Flight Connectivity Lead - Onboard Networking

Viasat; California (MD); On-site; USD 168,000 - 265,000; Full time

Job summary

Viasat is seeking a senior software engineering leader to drive the Connectivity Management team for the Commercial Aviation platform. You will oversee the onboard session management stack, guiding a geographically distributed team through a multi-year modernization in a production environment.

The role emphasizes hands-on engineering, strong networking, and containerized workloads, with a site-based work model requiring 60%+ in-office collaboration. A computer science degree is required.

Qualifications

• 7+ years hands-on software engineering (Go, Python, or Java) with systems programming in Linux.
• 2+ years leading a cross-functional software team in an agile/DevOps environment with distributed time zones.
• Strong networking fundamentals: DHCP, DNS, NAT, iptables, TCP/IP, Layer 3.
• Experience with distributed systems where state synchronization failures have production SLA consequences.
• Hands-on Linux, systemd, and containerized workloads (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Bachelor's degree or higher in CS, CE, or related field.

Responsibilities

• Lead and support a geographically distributed team of engineers and architecture stakeholders.
• Oversee design, implementation, delivery, and production ownership of onboard connectivity services.
• Drive multi-year architectural modernization across the session management platform.
• Champion quality through automated testing to catch session-management faults before they reach aircraft.
• Drive observability initiatives, including per-component resource budgeting and structured metrics across ground systems.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to ensure successful integration and delivery of solutions.

Skills

Software engineering

Technical leadership

Networking fundamentals

Distributed systems

Linux

Containerization

CI/CD tooling

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

GitHub Actions

Job description

Viasat is seeking a senior software engineering leader to drive the Connectivity Management team for the Commercial Aviation platform. You will oversee the onboard session management stack, guiding a geographically distributed team through a multi-year modernization in a production environment.

The role emphasizes hands-on engineering, strong networking, and containerized workloads, with a site-based work model requiring 60%+ in-office collaboration. A computer science degree is required.