Flight Director

About the role

Xona is the navigational intelligence company bringing real-time, centimeter-level certainty to any device, anywhere on Earth.

With Pulsar - the world’s most advanced PNT satellite infrastructure in Low Earth Orbit - Xona will offer a future-proof, backwards-compatible global positioning system optimized for absolute precision, superior power, and robust protection.

Overview

We are seeking a Flight Director to lead real-time operations of our LEO satellite constellation. Sitting on the Mission Operations team, you will hold final on-console authority for spacecraft commanding, from launch and early orbit through routine operations. You will oversee a team of operators who run hands-on operations, and you will review and approve the procedures they work from.

Responsibilities

• Direct real-time operations, making go/no-go calls for commanding and critical events.
• Lead launch and early orbit phase (LEOP), commissioning, orbit raising, and software update campaigns.
• Lead anomaly response: triage the issue, safe the spacecraft, coordinate engineering, and drive root cause to closure.
• Review and approve flight rules, operating and test procedures, contingency plans, and escalation paths written by the team.
• Oversee operator training and certification, and ensure rehearsals and simulations run (ex: DITL testing) on the Flatsat before critical events.
• Coordinate activities across spacecraft engineering, FSW, GNC, and ground station providers.
• Review and approve mission plans and command products before they are uplinked.
• Oversee a team of operators who run hands-on console operations and the on-call rotation, and serve as their escalation point.
• Report constellation health, operational risk, and post-event findings to engineering and leadership.

Required Skills/Qualifications

• Demonstrated anomaly response experience, including decisions made under time pressure with incomplete data.
• Strong working knowledge of spacecraft subsystems, including TT&C, power, thermal, ADCS/GNC, propulsion, and FSW.
• Experience working with ground station providers and planning contact schedules.
• Excellent verbal communication on console, with clear and concise direction.
• Strong written skills, with the judgment to review procedures and flight rules and write post-event reports.
• Experience leading or overseeing a team of spacecraft operators

Additional information

For U.S. Roles: To comply with U.S. Government space technology export regulations, applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the United States (i.e. Green Card holder), or other protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3).

For U.K. Roles: To comply with U.K. regulations, this role requires Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks, and successful candidates must be eligible to obtain UK Security Clearance (SC).

For Canada Roles: Successful candidates must obtain and hold a security clearance at the reliability status level, and pass security assessment for the Canadian Controlled Goods Program (CGP) and ITAR.