Senior Flight Dynamics Engineer

Senior Flight Dynamics Engineer to develop and evolve a Flight Dynamics System (FDS) capable of supporting scalable, highly automated LEO constellation operations. The role focuses on building robust algorithms, automation, and ground-segment integrations that enable operations teams to plan and execute orbit determination, prediction, maneuvering and conjunction mitigation at constellation scale with minimum operator intervention.

What You'll Do

• Design, develop and validate Flight Dynamics functions and software components to enable safe control of a LEO constellation (up to thousands of satellites) across the mission lifecycle (commissioning to routine phase and disposal).
• Develop and deliver end-to-end capabilities for orbit determination, prediction, maneuver planning, and constellation-level strategy (station-keeping, phasing reconfiguration, and replenishment), including automation and verification logic.
• Work with Ground Segment, Spacecraft Systems Engineering and Mission Analysis to translate mission needs into FDS requirements, operational concepts, interfaces, procedures, and automated pipelines.
• Navigate: Configure and run OD pipelines using GPS/GNSS, ranging, and/or tracking data. Tune force models and estimation parameters. Validate OD quality and covariance.
• Define and implement robust, automated procedures to pre-process and clean tracking data (outlier detection, consistency checks, weighting strategies) and/or dynamically configure OD (arc, measurement selection, parameter tuning) to maximize solution quality and reliably guarantee convergence.
• Assess sensitivity to environment modelling (Earth gravity, drag, SRP), data quality, and maneuver execution errors. Assess and monitor collision risk, both within the constellation and with third-party objects.
• Maneuver and Constellation Control: Compute and validate maneuver plans, including station-keeping, collision avoidance support, geometry maintenance, and disposal. Develop strategies and tools for constellation deployment and phasing, including drift-orbit management and slot assignment. Optimize collision avoidance strategies to minimise the impact on constellation-level services.
• Automation: Design and implement an automation framework and orchestration layer for constellation-scale Flight Dynamics, enabling operations teams to schedule, execute, monitor and report routine activities with minimal manual effort. Develop robust, configurable procedures that simplify operators’ work by turning high-level intents into safe, validated spacecraft activities. Build scalable orchestration pipelines for multi-satellite operations, including automatic fallbacks and re-processing strategies. Provide configurable monitoring, alerting, and KPI reporting features that reduce manual checks through automated consistency and sanity checks.
• FDS – Ground Segment integration: Lead/perform the integration of the Flight Dynamics System (FDS) with the Ground Segment, defining interfaces, data models, and end-to-end operational workflows. Typical elements to integrate with include: Mission Control System (MCS) for telecommand/telemetry interfaces, procedure execution, commanding constraints; Mission Planning System for activity planning, timeline management; TT&C chain and Ground Stations for tracking data ingestion, pass planning; Scheduler for batch processing and procedure automation and Ground Segment scale.
• Validation: Support system V&V, end-to-end integration tests, and operational rehearsals to validate FDS performance and automation at constellation scale. Produce and maintain Flight Dynamics engineering and operational documentation (requirements, interfaces/ICDs, procedures).

What We're Looking For

• A recognized engineering or master’s degree (Aerospace, Telecommunications) or a related degree (e.g., Physics, Maths).
• 5+ years in flight dynamics / mission analysis, with significant experience in numerical algorithms and software development.
• English C1 or above. Fluent Spanish or Portuguese is a plus.
• Analytical, rigorous, and quality-focused, able to independently validate results and communicate assumptions clearly.
• Self-motivated, high proactivity and curiosity toward complex engineering systems, team player and goal oriented.
• Special abilities in managing complex deliveries under pressure, time and cost constraints.
• Technical requirements: Strong knowledge of astrodynamics and orbital mechanics for LEO missions: perturbations, relative motion and orbit maintenance. Experience developing and validating numerical algorithms (e.g., numerical integration, optimization, root finding, filtering/estimation, and numerical stability/error analysis) for engineering applications. Experience with high-fidelity force modelling (Earth gravity models, atmospheric drag and density models, SRP) and understanding of model impacts on orbital mechanics. Hands-on experience with orbit determination and maneuver planning concepts. Satellite operations experience (especially Flight Dynamics), including understanding of operational constraints, and operator needs, is a strong plus. Experience designing robust and configurable automation: clear failure modes, retries, automatic fallbacks. Proficiency in Python and C++ for engineering and automation and good software engineering practices (version control, testing, CI/CD). Backend/service implementation skills: design and implementation of REST APIs in Python (FastAPI), including authentication/authorization, data validation.

Nice to Have

• Satellite operations experience, especially in Flight Dynamics, is a plus to transport operator expectations into FDS product.