Spacecraft Operations and Analysis Engineer – US

Pixxel; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Pixxel is seeking a senior Satellite Operations Engineer to monitor, operate, and maintain mission planning and ground systems in live production environments, including real-time spacecraft monitoring and control from the control room.

You will own the development, validation, and maintenance of flight procedures, lead on‑call coverage, and drive automation, CI/CD, and reliability across our growing fleet.

Responsibilities

• Monitor, operate, and maintain mission planning and ground systems in live production environments.
• Lead on‑call and shift coverage, providing senior‑level judgment and escalation support during non‑nominal situations.
• Translate mission requests into executable satellite telecommands and own the telecommand database.
• Architect, develop, and test ground software and automation frameworks for robust space operations.
• Define engineering standards for reliability, CI/CD, and observability across mission‑critical systems.

Job description

ROLE

• Monitor, operate, and maintain mission planning and ground systems in live production environments, including real-time spacecraft monitoring and control in the control room
• Serve as a senior on‑console operator, executing routine and special operational procedures across all mission phases with minimal oversight
• Own the development, validation, and maintenance of flight operational procedures and contingency procedures, ensuring strict adherence to configuration control standards
• Lead on‑call and shift schedule coverage, providing senior‑level judgment and escalation support during non‑nominal situations
• Perform trending and performance analysis on spacecraft subsystems and instruments, diagnosing anomalies and defining new analysis checks and tooling as needed
• Prepare, validate, and approve Operational Database change requests
• Build and evolve core mission planning services and algorithms that power mission planning applications for a growing satellite constellation
• Shape the architecture and design of mission planning and ground systems for scalability, reliability, and long‑term operability, and advocate upstream for design choices that make spacecraft easier and safer to operate
• Translate mission requests into executable satellite telecommands, including ownership of the telecommand database
• Align mission plans with onboard scheduling and execution constraints to ensure operational feasibility across a growing fleet
• Define engineering standards for reliability, CI/CD, infrastructure‑as‑code, observability, and operational compliance across mission‑critical systems, and drive their adoption across the operations team
• Architect, develop, and test ground software and automation frameworks for robust, hands‑off, long‑duration space operations
• Design, develop, and test flight software sequences and FDIR/telemetry configurations to support spacecraft health and fault management
• Establish and maintain CI, version control, and release discipline for operational codebases
• Champion automation as a core operational strategy, identifying where software‑driven solutions can replace manual processes across the fleet
• Support AIT teams across multiple