Ground Station Systems Engineer - Mission Operations Seen this week

About Lynk

Lynk is the inventor of satellite direct-to-device (D2D) technology and holds the world's only commercial FCC license to operate a commercial D2D system. Lynk enables mobile network operators' subscribers to send and receive text messages via standard unmodified mobile devices. The service has been tested on all seven continents, has regulatory approvals in over 30 countries, and is deployed commercially under more than 40 MNO contracts covering approximately 50 countries.

The Role

You will join the Mission Operations team as Ground Station Systems Engineer, responsible for technical design, integration, performance, and operational readiness of Lynk's ground station systems. This hands-on role focuses on making ground stations reliable, supportable, and scalable as the constellation grows.

You will work with Mission Operations, Ground Software, Ground Site Operations, Telecom Engineering, vendors, and site partners to ensure ground stations are designed, tested, monitored, and transitioned into operations effectively. You will define ground station system needs, hardware/software interfaces, performance expectations, and acceptance criteria that software and operations teams use to build, monitor, and support the network.

Core Responsibilities

Ground Station Systems Architecture and Design

• Support technical architecture of ground station systems including antennas, RF chains, modems, servers, networking equipment, timing, power, environmental considerations, and monitoring interfaces.
• Evaluate ground station designs for reliability, maintainability, scalability, cost, performance, and operational supportability.
• Define technical requirements for hardware, network interfaces, telemetry, alarms, control points, and operational handoff.
• Assess tradeoffs between owned ground stations, hosted ground stations, teleport partnerships, and Ground Station-as-a-Service providers.
• Evaluate hardware and design alternatives to improve cost, resiliency, throughput, and operational reliability.

Site Analysis, Integration, and Optimization

• Support site selection and technical analysis including antenna placement, interference concerns, backhaul availability, maintainability, physical access, and operational risk.
• Work with external site partners and Ground Site Operations on installation planning, equipment configuration, site inspections, and operational readiness.
• Support integration of antennas, RF equipment, modems, servers, network equipment, monitoring systems, and ground station services.
• Diagnose ground station performance issues involving RF systems, antennas, network paths, modems, servers, site configuration, or operational procedures.
• Analyze performance trends and recommend improvements to increase availability, contact success, data throughput, and operational resilience.

Acceptance Testing and Operational Readiness

• Define ground station acceptance criteria, test plans, and readiness checks for new or upgraded ground stations.
• Support site acceptance testing and operational handover.
• Maintain technical documentation including architecture diagrams, interface definitions, configuration baselines, operational constraints, test records, troubleshooting guides, and handover documentation.
• Support development of ground station CONOPS, operational playbooks, escalation paths, and first-level response guidance for the Mission Operations Center.

First 12 Months

• Develop strong understanding of Lynk's ground station architecture, hardware configurations, network interfaces, operational workflows, monitoring methods, and performance constraints.
• Become technical point of contact for ground station design, configuration, acceptance testing, performance analysis, and operational readiness.
• Improve acceptance criteria, site readiness checks, configuration baselines, and operational handover documentation.
• Define clear telemetry, alarm, control point, and reporting requirements for Ground Software and Mission Operations teams.
• Identify recurring ground station performance issues and drive practical improvements to reliability, maintainability, troubleshooting, and operational resilience.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, Telecommunications, RF Engineering, or related technical field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience with satellite ground systems, SATCOM systems, teleport operations, RF systems, antenna systems, networked infrastructure, or similar operational technical systems.
• Working knowledge of ground station components such as antennas, RF chains, modems, servers, networking equipment, timing systems, monitoring systems, and site infrastructure.
• Ability to troubleshoot complex issues spanning RF systems, antennas, modems, networks, servers, software interfaces, vendors, and operational workflows.
• Familiarity with networking concepts such as TCP/IP, routing, VPNs, firewalls, DNS, network monitoring, latency, backhaul, and secure remote access.
• Strong technical documentation habits including architecture diagrams, configuration records, operational procedures, test results, and technical decision rationale.
• Interest in satellite operations, ground segment systems, mission operations, telecommunications, or space systems.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience designing, deploying, operating, or maintaining satellite ground stations, teleports, RF ground systems, or GSaaS capabilities.
• Experience with antenna siting, link performance analysis, RF interference considerations, or ground station optimization.
• Experience with modems, SDRs, RF equipment, timing systems, spectrum monitoring, or ground station monitoring and control systems.
• Experience working with ground station vendors, teleport operators, satellite operators, telecom operators, or managed ground station service providers.
• Familiarity with observability, telemetry, alerting, incident response, and operational performance reporting.
• Ability to use scripting, Linux tools, logs, telemetry, or basic automation to support troubleshooting and analysis.
• Experience in startup, small technical team, mission operations center, network operations center, teleport, satellite operator, or similarly fast-moving technical environment.

ITAR Requirements

To comply with U.S. Government export control regulations (ITAR), applicants must be one of the following: (i) a U.S. citizen or national, (ii) a lawful permanent resident (green card holder), (iii) a refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) an asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158. Individuals who do not meet these criteria must be eligible to obtain necessary authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Location

Chantilly, VA