Ground Systems Engineer

ispace is looking for Ground Systems Engineer to join our growing team in Tokyo.   

The Ground Systems team forms the backbone of ispace’s Test and Flight Operations, delivering the infrastructure, systems, and tools required to support mission testing and operational activities across the full mission lifecycle. This includes the design, development, and maintenance of the Mission Control Center, Mission Control Software, operational toolchains, and end-to-end test environments that ensure mission readiness.

As a Ground Systems Engineer, you will be responsible for the design, development, and maintenance of Mission Control Software supporting ispace’s global operations. You will oversee the end-to-end data flow between users and the spacecraft, ensuring reliable, secure, and efficient handling of telemetry and telecommand data. This includes defining and implementing data encoding, processing, and encryption mechanisms across the ground segment and its interfaces.

 

• Type: Full-time Position
• Location: Hybrid (Tokyo, Japan) On site at least twice a week with remote option
• Experience Level: See Qualifications below
• Group: JP Ground Systems Group, JP Test and Flight Operations Division

Why this role matters?

As a Ground Systems Engineer, your work directly enables communication with the spacecraft and underpins every phase of mission test and execution. You play a pivotal role in ensuring that missions are conducted safely, reliably, and efficiently—designing and maintaining the infrastructure, software, and operational workflows that make real-time spacecraft operations possible. Your contributions not only ensure mission success, but also streamline operations and empower flight teams to perform at their best.

Key responsibilities

Ground Segment Design, Infrastructure and Development- Collaborate with customers and internal stakeholders (System and Subsystem Engineers,AIT, Mission Operations, etc.) to gather requirements, and design, develop, document,procure, maintain, and deploy ground segment systems.

• Design, develop, and maintain cloud-native ground segment software applications andmicroservices, including mission control systems, automation tools, and data pipelines.
• Design, deploy, and maintain cloud infrastructure on AWS, including containerisedenvironments using Docker and Kubernetes, ensuring reliability, scalability, and security ofground segment services.
• Implement and maintain CI/CD pipelines (GitLab, Ansible) for continuous delivery of groundsegment software components. - Oversee the integration of software components within the virtual infrastructure hosting theground segment, ensuring proper interfacing with spacecraft systems and external groundelements (e.g., EGSE, PIL components).