(Senior) Engineer, Payload Network & Timing, meoSphere

This role sits at the heart of a fully digital, software-defined satellite payload within the meoSphere programme, SES’s next-generation Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite constellation. You will architect the network fabric and timing backbone that enables regenerative processing, beamforming, and inter-satellite routing to operate as a single coherent system—with deterministic performance, timing discipline, and zero tolerance for ambiguity.

About the role

You will design systems where physics, networking, and real-time behaviour intersect, taking direct ownership of one of the most challenging problems in modern space payloads. The role involves working in a cutting-edge manufacturing and test facility, internalizing a critical segment of the satellite supply chain to accelerate development timelines, reduce costs, and ensure quality.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the payload timing architecture end-to-end, including PTP (IEEE 1588v2) and SyncE across distributed on-board nodes, master/slave hierarchies, clock discipline, and holdover behaviour.
• Architect the internal payload network fabric (L2/L3 switching and routing logic) to move traffic deterministically between On-Board Processing, Digital Beamforming, Service Links, Feeder Links, and Optical Inter-Satellite Links.
• Design QoS classes and shaping policies, then validate them under congestion to ensure deterministic performance. Jitter, wander, latency, and packet loss are first-class design constraints.
• Act as the payload’s technical authority for networking and timing, driving architecture trade-offs, owning interface definitions, and making decisions that scale from lab bring-up to flight hardware.

Requirements

• Degree in Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Telecommunications, Physics, or a related field.
• Strong experience designing and owning timing-critical and/or high-performance networked systems, with direct responsibility for correctness, stability, and runtime behaviour.
• Deep hands-on expertise with precision time and synchronization technologies, including IEEE 1588v2 (PTP) and SyncE, and a solid understanding of clock hierarchy, discipline, and holdover behaviour.
• Proven ability to architect and reason about L2/L3 networks in complex systems, including routing, switching, VLANs, multicast, and deterministic traffic behaviour.
• Experience designing and validating QoS and traffic shaping mechanisms under congestion and stress conditions.
• Practical exposure to high-throughput data-plane processing, such as DPDK, XDP, or equivalent high-speed packet processing frameworks.
• Strong system-level mindset: able to translate requirements into clean architectures, make sound trade-offs, and document interfaces clearly.
• Comfortable acting as a technical authority in a focused domain, driving decisions and aligning other engineers around a coherent design.
• Eligibility for ESA/EU/NATO/National SECRET personnel security clearances. Candidates must be prepared to undergo a security clearance procedure.
• Willing to work at least 60% onsite from the office.
• Able to travel nationally and internationally.

Nice to have

• Experience working on distributed, real-time, or hardware-adjacent systems where latency, jitter, and determinism are first-order constraints.
• Hands-on use of traffic generation and analysis tools (e.g., Spirent, Ixia) and familiarity with jitter/wander characterization.
• Background in space, aerospace, telecom, or other safety-critical or mission-critical environments.
• Track record of simplifying complex systems without hiding risk or deferring hard problems.

What success looks like

• The payload maintains tight frequency and phase alignment across distributed nodes—even through mode changes and degraded conditions.
• Traffic flows are predictable, deterministic, and debuggable under peak load.
• The network architecture scales cleanly across payload functions without timing hacks or hidden coupling.
• Other engineers trust your designs because they are simple where possible and precise where required.

Pay

The salary range for this full-time position (US only) is $114,075 - $167,300. Salary ranges are determined by role, level, and geographic location. Individual compensation within the range is based on work location and a variety of factors, including job-related skills, experience, qualifications, and relevant education or training. Additional compensation and benefits may apply depending on the location and terms of employment.