Space jobs are never late

Hello hello!

Running a bit late this week, but hey, PROBA-3 is in safe mode so we're in good company.

Not the busiest news week, but there are some genuinely interesting things happening. Another European launch attempt came within 3 seconds of lifting off, a Swiss startup just raised an eyebrow-raising amount of money and a Spanish propulsion company just made history with the EIC.

Oh, and jobs. Lots of them. Let's go!

🚀 Spotlight: New on findaspacejob.com

Here are some of the best space jobs available today:

• PhD Position in Extreme-Precision Radial Velocity Instrumentation for Earth-like Exoplanets (HARVY Project) @ ETH Zurich (Switzerland)

  👉 👉 You'd be building the instruments that could one day confirm we're not alone. No pressure…

• ELC Capacity Demonstration Manager / Boost! Commercial Services Manager (5 Positions) @ ESA (France)

  👉 Five roles… Commercial services 💰💰💰 If you want to be at the centre of Europe's push to (try to) compete with SpaceX on launch, this is the place.

• Satellite Navigation Engineering Trainee (Student Worker) @ Spaceopal (Germany)

  👉 Galileo (Europe's GPS) needs people too. Great entry point into satellite navigation for students.

• Project Controller @ ESA (Netherlands)

  👉 Not the most interesting title for an engineer, but ESA projects are massive and someone has to keep them on budget and on time. 

• Launch Operator @ Involve Space (Italy)

  👉 Work (again!) on launching stuff to the stratosphere!!! How cool is that?

• Bid Manager @ Involve Space (Italy)

  👉 The person who wins the contracts that fund the missions. If you're good at this, every space company needs you.

• Lead AIT (Assembly, Integration & Testing) Engineer @ Revolv Space (Italy)

  👉 You'd be the one making sure the satellite actually works before it leaves Earth. So no easy role. Hands-on and at a company that's moving fast.

• Software Engineer @ ESO (Germany)

  👉 ESO runs some of the most powerful telescopes on the planet. Writing code here means your software is literally pointed at the universe.

• Postdoctoral researcher in AI-based health-monitoring and FDIR for satellites @ Uni of Luxembourg (Luxembourg)

  👉 AI + satellite autonomy + fault detection. This might be the kind of research that ends up in some very cool spacecraft in some years.

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?

🗞️ News: a mixed bag this week

Isar Aerospace scrubs Spectrum's second launch (again)

Europe was this close. The countdown for "Onward and Upward" was aborted during autosequence after an unauthorised boat violated the danger zone, forcing a hold that burned through the entire launch window. There’s no new launch date yet. But luckitly this was an operational issue, not a hardware one. If successful, Spectrum would become the first rocket to reach orbit from European soil. So this is a big thing!

PAVE Space closes a $40M seed round

Swiss startup PAVE Space, founded in 2024 as a spin-off from the student-led Gruyère Space Programme, secured $40 million in seed funding to build orbital transfer vehicles that can move satellites between orbits rapidly. The round was led by Visionaries Club and Creandum. That's a massive seed for a two-year-old company. Keep an eye on these guys.

Arkadia Space becomes the first Spanish company selected by the EIC Accelerator

Out of 923 applicants across Europe, only 61 were selected and Arkadia made the cut, securing up to €14.5M. They've already validated their hypergolic propulsion system in orbit and are now moving into commercial contracts. A big win for the Spanish space ecosystem 💪😎🇪🇸

One more thing: no newsletter next week. I’ll be taking a few days off for Easter. In the meantime, the job board isn't going anywhere 👉 findaspacejob.com

Big hugs!

P.S. Hiring? Post your role here

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