Aero Safety Operations Engineer

ViaSat - Carlsbad, CA

Carlsbad, CA

Telecommunications

About the position

At Viasat, we're on a mission to deliver connections with the capacity to change the world. For more than 35 years, Viasat has helped shape how consumers, businesses, governments and militaries around the globe communicate. We're looking for people who think big, act fearlessly, and create an inclusive environment that drives positive impact to join our team. The Senior Aero Safety Operation Engineer will work on IRIS and Aero Safety Operations, providing second line support to Aero safety systems, IRIS, SwiftBroadband Safety (SB-S), SB-S 2.0 and Classic Aero. The successful candidate will be required to work in a team to support preventive maintenance, troubleshooting, managing the life cycle of the equipment maintaining the correct software release. The Classic Aero service uses dedicated Aircraft Earth Stations (AES) that operate over existing I3, I4 and I6 satellite constellation from Viasat owned Classic Aero Ground Earth Station (GES) network. The system provides Safety Services for both voice and data. SwiftBroadband (SB) Safety provides safety satellite-based voice and data communications services with a high service availability, and a reliable and high quality of service. The SB Safety service provides backwards compatibility to the two channels of cockpit voice and ACARS data as provided by Classic Aero, while also offering a high bandwidth prioritised IP data channel for the cockpit and an in-built position reporting and tracking service. The role will require some travel to other Viasat's offices, and participation in an after-hours on-call support rota.

Responsibilities

• Responsibility for the day-to-day operation of IRIS, SBS1, SBS2, and Classic Aero Systems located around the world.
• Responsibility for in life cycle management for all the systems within the scope of the team's responsibility.
• Maintain an accurate 'as installed' database and plan for essential upgrades in coordination with Platform Engineering.
• Ensure the availability of aero safety services and follow any issues to resolution with Platform Engineering and the vendor as needed.
• Providing a second-line response to faults and failures and working to resolve them.
• Coordinate the process with the ISP (IRIS Service Provider) for IRIS incidents.
• Incident and problem management, including ticket monitoring and regular updates.
• Ownership and coordination of tasks and processes.
• Work in close contact with Platform Engineering and 1st and 2nd line to plan and implement changes.
• Provide support to platform engineering to propose and assess changes and/or enhancements to safety services.
• Maintain operational documentation relating to Aero safety services systems.
• Support the team in reviewing the SB-S and IRIS alarm and propose amendments and improvements to Platform Engineering.
• Create procedures for collecting logs and produce IRIS period reporting to the ISP.
• Work in conjunction with the Aero Area Lead and Platform Engineers to schedule and perform periodic maintenance on the system.
• Attend regular meetings with the IRIS Service Provider and technological provider, including Airbus to discuss system performance and reported issues.

Requirements

• University degree education or equivalent experience in Computer Science / Data Communications.
• Knowledge of satellite communications principles (e.g. link budgets, fundamental satellite characteristics, etc.).
• Practical experience in a telecommunications-related field, ideally gained in an operational environment.
• Good knowledge of Windows and Linux / Solaris computer systems at command-line level and basic systems administrator level.
• Operator level knowledge of network monitoring tools like Stablenet, Solarwinds or equivalent.
• Knowledge of monitoring / troubleshooting tools like Wireshark would be advantageous.
• Knowledge of Ticketing systems (ServiceNow advantageous).
• Fluent with Microsoft Office components.
• Willingness to learn new skills and be self-motivated.
• Ability to work in a team environment.
• Able to take ownership of situations and tasks.
• Ability to work under pressure and show flexibility.
• A co-operative but assertive personality.

Nice-to-haves

• Familiarity with aero safety-related systems (Classic Aero, SB-S 1.0 and SB-S 2.0).
• Knowledge of Linux Programming/scripting experience automation/scripting experience (python, java, HTML, etc.).
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English.