Big money, big hiring

Good morning!

With the Easter vibes still around, Find a Space Job is back 😎 and what a week has been.

We have a new episode with Alvaro Alonso, CCO and cofounder of Leanspace, and it turned into one of my favourite conversations so far. Ground segment, software, and what it actually takes to become an entrepreneur in this industry.

On the news side: Amazon just spent $11.6 billion on a satellite company while PLD Space got a very nice money boost to get their rocket off the ground soon.

And I won’t get tired of repeating it: the space industry is hiring.

And hiring big time 👇

🚀 Spotlight: New on findaspacejob.com

Here are some of the best space jobs available today:

• Ground Segment Software Architect @ Leanspace (France)

  👉 You'll build the technical prototypes that actually convince space agencies and startups to trust Leanspace with their ground operations.

• Delivery Manager – Space Operations Software @ Leanspace (France)

  👉 Keep the chaos organised, manage the grant money (French required!) and make sure the code ships. (More below!!!!)

• Engineering Project Manager @ Revolv Space (Italy)

  👉 Keep demanding clients happy, engineers on schedule, and budgets in check while building next-gen satellite power systems. Easy.

• Talent Acquisition Partner @ ESA (Netherlands)

  👉 Hire me people for ESA (and keep promoting your vacancies in Find a Space Job 😎

• Launch Operator (full and part time!) @ Involve Space (Italy)

  👉 Not one but two! A real hands on role.

• EO Future Mission End-to-end System Engineer @ ESA (Netherlands)

  👉 EO is growing like crazy, future missions will be cool, and if you get to work on them end-to-end: then all the better

• ESA Graduate Trainee in Earth Observation Ocean Science @ ESA (Italy)

  👉 Any recent physics or oceanography graduates wanting to tackle climate change from space?

• Embedded System Architect @ Revolv Space (Italy)

  👉 Go and build the brain of the satellite!

• PhD Position in Theory and Modelling of Astrophysics and Atmospheric Physics @ TU Dortmund (Germany)

  👉 So there’s more to Dortmund than their football team 😉 very nice PhD for all of you astrophysicists!

• Canada Impact+ Research Chairs in Space Systems Design @ The University of Manitoba (Canada)

  👉 $8 million to build your dream space systems research team 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

• Synchronisation and Timing Engineer @ SKAO (UK)

  👉 If you’re curious why not check? ⏱️

If you do not see a role you like here, go check the job board for the full list. And tell me: what role are you looking for?

🎙️ Space is a software game

We have a new podcast episode!

This week I spoke with Alvaro Alonso, the CCO and cofounder of Leanspace. We talked about a reality that companies often forget about: every space company today is a software company.

Getting a satellite to orbit is hard. But once it’s up there, everything depends on software: mission operatios, data pipelines, ground systems…

And that’s where things often break.

Alvaro is building Leanspace to fix exactly this problem: giving teams a modern, modular software stack instead of forcing every company to build their own ground segment from scratch (again and again).

We also talked about:

• what it actually takes to build a space startup in Europe

• why this problem has been ignored for so long

• and the reality of just not quitting when things get difficult

And it is a genuinely great conversation about space engineering, entrepreneurship, what it takes to build a startup and essentially refusing to quit

» Listen to the episode here « 

» Or watch it here 👇 «

🗞️ News: loans, delays and a bit of orbital drama

Amazon acquires Globalstar for $11.6 billion 

This is the story of the week. Amazon has agreed to buy Globalstar outright, giving Amazon Leo access to Globalstar's satellite network, spectrum licenses and its existing partnership with Apple, which uses Globalstar to power the Emergency SOS feature on iPhones. The deal is worth $11.6 billion and expected to close in 2027.

For European operators watching from the sidelines, it's a useful reminder of the massive capital gap between US and everyone else… Good luck IRIS2 in staying competitive 🤦

PLD Space secures €30M EIB loan for MIURA 5 

A month after closing a €180M Series C, PLD Space has added a €30M venture debt loan from the European Investment Bank to the pile. It is the EIB's first direct investment in a small launcher, which matters as a signal as much as the money itself. MIURA 5 is targeting its first test flight later this year from the Guiana Space Centre.

With the ELC funding from the Spanish government on top of this, PLD has now secured roughly €380M in total.

ESA spent €82M to launch Sentinel-1D on Ariane 6 

This came out via ESA's annual contract disclosures. The launch happened back in November 2025, but the price tag is only now public.

For context: the mission was originally planned for Vega C, which typically costs around €40M per flight. Switching to Ariane 6 after Vega C's issues effectively doubled the bill. ESA has been explicit that it wants to keep European missions on European launchers, but transparency around the real cost of that decision is useful for anyone thinking about what "European autonomy" actually costs… Although it’s not that far from a Falcon 9 launch

SpaceX challenges Amazon's orbit at the FCC 

SpaceX filed a complaint arguing that Amazon launched its Leo satellites at around 450km rather than the approved ~400km, which it says creates unacceptable collision risks. Amazon says the flexibility was within the licence terms and that changing Ariane 6's parameters would have meant multi-month delays. The dispute is now part of a broader regulatory rivalry between the two companies.

Worth watching: Amazon is also asking the FCC for a two-year extension on its July 2026 deployment deadline, having only around 241 satellites in orbit against a target of 1618…

Avio delays SMILE on Vega C's first solo flight 

Avio announced a postponement of the SMILE satellite launch after a supplier found a technical issue on a subsystem component production line, after the rocket was already fully integrated.

The context that makes this more interesting: this was set to be the first Vega C flight managed entirely by Avio following its split from Arianespace but it seems they are not going to rush it. New launch date to be confirmed.

That’s all for this week.

If you’re applying, keep going. If you’re hiring, now is a good time ;)

Until next week.

P.S. Hiring? Post your role here

As usual: connect on LinkedIn and follow the Find a Space Job for updates.