Head of AOCS
ReOrbit is looking for an experienced and driven Head of AOCS to lead the development and execution of Attitude and Orbit Control Systems across our spacecraft portfolio.
This is a critical leadership role at the heart of our satellite development programmes, with responsibility spanning the full life cycle - from early mission definition through to launch, commissioning, and in-orbit operations. You will play a key role in ensuring our spacecraft meet the demanding pointing, stability and orbit control requirements needed to deliver next generation space data relay capabilities.
It’s an exciting opportunity to join a fast growing company and shape both the technical direction and the team responsible for one of the most critical subsystems on our spacecraft.
Responsibilities
Lead the end to end development of AOCS across all missions, from concept and design through to in-orbit operations
Define and maintain robust pointing, stabilisation, and orbit control architectures aligned with payload and communications performance requirements
Own system-level AOCS design decisions, balancing performance, robustness, and operational complexity across avionics, propulsion, power, structures, and thermal domains
Lead the selection, sizing, and integration of AOCS sensors and actuators (e.g. star trackers, IMUs, sun sensors, magnetometers, reaction wheels)
Drive cross-functional collaboration with Payload, Communications, Flight Software, and Operations teams, particularly around mode transitions and safe-mode strategies
Build, lead, and mentor a high-performing, geographically distributed AOCS team, establishing standardised workflows and engineering processes
Ensure rigorous verification and validation of AOCS designs at both subsystem and system level
Support recruitment, development and retention of top AOCS talent as the organisation scales.
Skills and Requirements
10+ years of experience in satellite design or related engineering roles
5+ years of experience leading engineering teams with a track record of delivering flight hardware on schedule
Proven end to end responsibility for AOCS on at least two medium to large spacecraft programmes that have successfully reached orbit and achieved long mission lifetimes (GEO experience strongly preferred)
Strong understanding of real world AOCS performance, including lessons learned from in orbit anomalies or near misses
Hands on experience designing, tuning, and validating AOCS control laws on flight hardware
Deep expertise in spacecraft dynamics, estimation, and control applied to operational systems
Demonstrated experience integrating AOCS sensors and actuators, and resolving real world challenges such as misalignment, noise, saturation and timing delays
Track record of debugging and recovering AOCS issues during system level testing or in flight operations
Experience supporting high accuracy pointing payloads (e.g. optical, RF, intersatellite links)
Proven experience delivering AOCS flight software implementations
What does ReOrbit do?
ReOrbit builds the foundation for the next generation of space applications by transforming satellites into truly intelligent, interconnected platforms, defined by software. Our satellite design philosophy revolves around the idea that satellites must network, communicate with each other and thus improve mission efficiency. How can this be achieved? Thanks to a flexible software-first architecture, where all these aspects are dealt with upfront in the mission concept, as integrated functionalities.
ReOrbit’s top-notch team of software engineers and system architects develop in-house software, procure hardware from the best-in-class suppliers, and seamlessly integrate the components to create flexible and secure satellites. Today, we are a rapidly growing company building a very strong multidisciplinary team to support our activities. We are headquartered in Helsinki, Finland with a subsidiaries in Bristol, UK and Bariloche, Argentina.
Working at ReOrbit
At ReOrbit, we are focused on building a strong team as we believe nothing can be accomplished without innovative, humble and curious minds working together on a common goal. We’re all about fostering an inclusive, dynamic environment where equality and diversity are our strength.
We offer
Challenging but rewarding environment – you will thrive if you are always reflecting on how to make things better. Your ideas will be heard.
Ambitious and supportive network of people, who are motivated to change the space industry, bringing expertise from both classic and new space .
Benefits such as lunch vouchers, events, parties, occupational health care and additional health insurance - but most importantly a possibility to be a part of a unique and diverse team, connected by similar mindset and sense of humor.
We like to spend time together! You can choose activities whichever is to your liking – runOrbit, climbOrbit; become ping pong or board games champion.
We support relocation and integration into Finnish society.
Join us in our journey of building software enabled satellites for secure communications
and, thus, creating the most compelling in space data flow company of the new space era.
For agencies: We do not accept unsolicited CVs for our open vacancies. Any CV sent to our team unsolicited will reserve us the right to pursue a candidate without obligation to the sender. All candidate submissions must be conducted through our official channels and in accordance with our terms of engagement.
- Department
- Engineering
- Locations
- Helsinki, Finland
- Remote status
- Hybrid