Ground Station Lead

An aerospace client is currently seeking a Full-Time Ground Infrastructure Lead at their Herndon, Virginia location to drive development and deployment of our globally proliferated ground system, and to stand up the ground infrastructure required to operate and scale the new positioning service which it enables. LEONS (Low Earth Orbit Navigation System) is their ground-to-space positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) service that helps LEO satellites maintain trusted time and position when GNSS/GPS is degraded, denied, or untrusted. Conceptually, it’s the “reverse” of a GPS-like service: instead of satellites broadcasting navigation to users on the ground, a distributed network of TrustPoint-operated ground stations transmits navigation signals to satellites in orbit, enabling onboard computation of time and/or position to sustain mission performance during disruption. This role owns the strategic and tactical management of their LEONs ground station network (including partner/vendor coordination with commercial ground providers), and is accountable for taking “new capability” from concept through operational readiness. You’ll work across engineering, product, and external partners to incorporate LEONS into TrustPoint’s architecture and ensure it supports their operational capability as required. As an early builder of this function, significant upward mobility will be available to the responsible individual, including opportunities to shape the ground roadmap, service delivery strategy, and operational posture as we scale. Responsibilities: Lead end-to-end development and deployment of LEONS, including ground-to-space signal delivery readiness, operational monitoring concepts, and service rollout planning. Own strategy and execution for LEONS operations: architecture, coverage planning, capacity planning, redundancy, and phased expansion. Stand up the company's LEONS capability from requirements definition to vendor selection/management and operational procedures. Manage LEONS vendors and partners to ensure expected performance, including requirements are met and delivered on-timeCoordinate closely with the engineering team and product teams to incorporate LEONS into TrustPoint’s system architecture, including interface definitions, timing/orbit data flows, security/authentication constructs, and operational workflows. Drive operational readiness: establish SOPs, commissioning checklists, configuration management, on-call/incident processes, and continuous improvement loops. Define and track service performance (availability, geometry/coverage objectives, latency, integrity monitoring outputs, time/position quality metrics). Requirements B.S. in Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field (M.S. preferred). 5-10+ years of experience in ground systems for space communications, TT&C or telecom networks, teleports/ground station services, communications infrastructure, large-scale distributed systems, or other related industries. Significant contributions to deploying new capabilities across the full engineering lifecycle from requirements definition to vendor integration and sustained operations. Proven experience, including lab and field troubleshooting, deploying or operating complete systems: power → IP networking → timing → RF → remote monitoring, Strong systems thinking across interfaces, mission operations workflows, and service reliability engineering. Ability to operate autonomously in a fast-paced startup environment and drive complex programs to completion. Excellent professional and interpersonal communication skills, both verbal and written. Desired: Demonstrated ownership of deploying new operational capabilities that include hardware, software, and operations. Experience supporting or deploying navigation, timing, or high-integrity services (PNT, time transfer, or integrity monitoring). Experience with outdoor / remote site engineering including NEMA/IP-rated enclosures, thermal management, environmental sensors, grounding/bonding, and lightning/surge protection. Experience with Networking including VPN, firewalls, remote access controls, segmented LANs, cellular router integration, reliability patterns, network monitoring. Experience working with commercial ground station providers and managing technical + programmatic delivery (interfaces, scheduling, SLAs, performance). Background in RF systems, signal monitoring, or ground-based transmit/receive infrastructure (especially in protected uplink bands such as S- or C-band). Familiarity with LEO constellation operations (multi-satellite scheduling, rapid scaling, automation, and cross-functional coordination). Experience defining or operating managed services with subscription-like commercial models, performance reporting, and customer success workflows.