Thermal Flight Operations Engineer, Amazon Leo (Satellites)

Amazon Kuiper Manufacturing Enterprises LLC; Redmond (WA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Amazon Leo seeks a Thermal Flight Operations Engineer to support the full mission lifecycle of the satellite constellation, from ground operations and pre-launch verification through on-orbit monitoring and decommissioning.

You will work with Mission Operations and Thermal teams to run automated tooling, telemetry dashboards, and procedures, plus troubleshoot in-flight thermal anomalies and contribute data back to design.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field.
• 3+ years in thermal engineering, spacecraft operations, or systems engineering.
• Proficiency in Python or a similar language.
• Experience with version control (Git) recommended.

Responsibilities

• Execute defined thermal operational responses and coordinate mode transitions.
• Monitor thermal health via telemetry dashboards and analyze margins.
• Investigate in-flight thermal anomalies and escalate as needed.
• Develop and maintain automated procedures, alerts, and dashboards.
• Document operational instructions and procedures.

Skills

Python

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Git

Job description

Amazon Leo is Amazon's low Earth orbit satellite network. Our mission is to deliver fast, reliable internet connectivity to customers beyond the reach of existing networks. From individual households to schools, hospitals, businesses, and government agencies, Amazon Leo will serve people and organizations operating in locations without reliable connectivity.

Amazon Leo's Thermal team seeks a Thermal Flight Operations Engineer to support the full mission lifecycle of Amazon Leo's satellite constellation -- from ground operations and pre-launch verification, through early mission checkouts and commissioning, on-orbit thermal monitoring and management, and eventual descent and decommissioning. This role works with Amazon Leo's Mission Operations team and Thermal team to ensure the safe and effective operation of each satellite's mission.

The Thermal Flight Operations Engineer serves as the operational liaison between Mission Operations and the Thermal team. The role combines hand‑on execution of approved thermal responses with the continuous development of automation, monitoring tools, and operational procedures for the Thermal team.

A significant portion of the position focuses on building and improving automated capabilities -- scripted procedures, telemetry dashboards, alerting systems, and tools that scale with the growing constellation. This work requires close collaboration with Thermal Design Engineers and other subsystem operators to ensure all solutions remain within established safety margins and operational parameters.

The role also involves active participation in troubleshooting in‑flight thermal anomalies alongside subject matter experts and contributing flight data back to the design team for model correlation and continuous improvement of thermal predictions.

Given that constellation operations run continuously throughout the year, this position requires flexibility in work scheduling. The role operates on standard business hours with rotating on‑call responsibilities; launch support may require shifts at scheduled times outside normal hours.

Export Control Requirement: Due to applicable export control laws and regulations, candidates must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (i.e., current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.

Key job responsibilities

Operations Engineering

• Execute defined thermal operational responses (load switch resets, thermal mode transitions, attitude constraint coordination)
• Monitor and assess thermal system health across the constellation using telemetry data and automated dashboards
• Track temperature trends and thermal margin against approved limits for thermally-critical components
• Investigate and troubleshoot in‑flight thermal anomalies (unexpected temperature excursions, heater failures, degraded performance, FDIR)
• Escalate to Thermal Responsible Engineers for scenarios where existing automation or runbooks do not apply
• Document operational instructions and procedures

Automation & Software Development

• Develop and enhance operational procedures, both manual and automated (i.e., software development in Python or similar)
• Build and maintain automated alerts for thermal limit exceedances, margin degradation, and anomalous behavior
• Develop dashboards and telemetry analysis tools that scale with the growing constellation
• Support development of tools leveraging flight data correlation with thermal models
• Formulate responses to new operational scenarios for review and approval

Risk Management & System Health

• Identify and assess thermal operational risks
• Collaborate in the definition of risk mitigations, owning their implementation and in‑space execution
• Apply and scale mechanisms to assess thermal system health and margin during all mission phases
• Contribute to improvements of thermal system concepts of operations (CONOPs)

Schedule Availability Requirements

• Launch support includes rotating shifts at scheduled launch times, which may occur outside normal business hours
• Respond to needs for 24/7 on‑call support on a rotating basis

About the team

Amazon Leo's Thermal Team is responsible for the thermal control solutions for all components in Amazon Leo's satellites and customer terminals. The team works with many engineering disciplines (e.g., mechanical, power, electrical, network, manufacturing) to find designs that maximize performance while minimizing mass, cost, and manufacturing complexity, and enabling all components to operate reliably over the satellite's target lifetime. The team follows all hardware components from conceptual design through detailed analysis, development testing, launch, and flight.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree
• 3+ years of industry work experience in thermal engineering, spacecraft operations, or systems engineering
• Proficiency in at least one programming language (Python or similar)
• Experience working with version