Vice President, Software Engineering

About the position

Skylo is a global Non-Terrestrial Network service provider based in Mountain View, CA, offering a service that allows smartphone and IoT cellular devices to connect directly over existing satellites. Skylo’s direct-to-device service is now live on millions of activated devices across five continents, with more than 60 million square kilometers of coverage, in partnership with multiple satellite operators, mobile network operators (MNOs), Tier-1 chipset makers, and OEMs. Devices connected over satellite are managed and served by Skylo's commercial NTN vRAN, featuring a 3GPP standards-based cloud-native base station and core. Skylo provides anywhere, anytime connectivity solution that seamlessly roams between terrestrial and satellite networks. Our focus is on enabling connected services for people outdoors and connected workflows across three main verticals: mass-market consumer devices, automotive, and industrial IoT. This role is located in Espoo, Finland where we are onsite 3 days a week in office.

Responsibilities

• Lead the architecture, development, and productization of Skylo’s software products across radio access network, core network, element management systems, cloud application, and other in-house produced software products.
• Ensure high availability, fault tolerance, and security best practices for all Skylo software components.
• Design software products for network deployment and work closely with Skylo’s network engineering and network operations teams to understand product requirements and build to suit.
• Champion CI/CD, DevOps, and automation to accelerate software delivery and enhance operational reliability.
• Define and execute the long-term software engineering strategy, ensuring alignment with Skylo’s business goals and network architecture.
• Drive software innovation in areas such as NB-IoT over satellite, software-defined networking (SDN), and cloud-native network functions (CNFs).
• Build, mentor, and scale a high-performing software engineering team.
• Define team structures, hire key talent, and establish engineering best practices.
• Foster a culture of collaboration, continuous learning, and accountability.
• Implement clear performance metrics to track engineering productivity and software quality.
• Work closely with Product Management, Network Operations, and IT to define requirements and roadmaps for software solutions.
• Engage with third-party vendors and partners to integrate external tools, APIs, and cloud services into Skylo’s ecosystem.
• Support Skylo’s network engineering team in troubleshooting and optimizing network performance.
• Manage the software development budget, ensuring cost-effective cloud resource utilization and vendor contract negotiations.
• Define KPIs to measure software performance, security, and operational efficiency.

Requirements

• 15+ years of software engineering experience, with at least 10 years in a leadership role.
• Proven track record in building and scaling cloud-native software systems in a production environment.
• Experience with Kubernetes, and microservices architectures.
• Experience in real-time network management, OSS/BSS platforms, or IoT cloud services.
• Strong programming expertise in Python, Go, or Java, with hands-on experience in cloud-based infrastructure as code (Terraform, Helm).
• Deep understanding of NB-IoT, LTE, 5G, or satellite communications protocols.
• Strong grasp of security best practices, including authentication, encryption, and access control in distributed systems.
• Experience in leading global teams across geographies and time zones that develop high-performance, highly available, and scalable applications.
• Excellent communication skills with a track record of collaborating across engineering, product.
• Prior experience in telecommunications, NTN (Non-Terrestrial Networks), or satellite communications.
• Familiarity with 3GPP standards, particularly LTE-M, NB-IoT, and 5G NTN specifications.
• Experience with edge computing architectures and SDR (Software-Defined Radio) integrations.
• Strong understanding of AI/ML applications in network optimization and anomaly detection.
• Experience working in fast-paced, high-growth startup environments.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation packages including a stock option based equity program.
• Comprehensive benefit plans.
• Monthly allowances for wellness and education reimbursement.
• A generous time off policy, holidays, and the opportunity to temporarily work abroad.
• Once in a lifetime opportunity to be a part of developing and running world’s first commercial, live direct-to-device satellite network and service.
• Access to world-class team and talent across tech domains: software, hardware, chipsets, telecom, satellite and network virtualization.
• Open, transparent, inclusive culture that blends the Silicon Valley, Nordic and South Asia characteristics.