Company Description

Inmarsat has been at the forefront of global mobile satellite communications for over forty years, and is the market leading provider of voice and high-speed data communications for users on land, at sea and in the air through its constellation of 14 geostationary satellites.  Inmarsat is a privately owned company with a profitable track record and significant growth aspirations. This is represented by more than 55 nationalities in the workforce, reflecting the global and dynamic nature of the business. With an investment of over $3 billion in its latest network infrastructure, Inmarsat is at the forefront of global mobile communications innovation.

Chief Technology Office 

Inmarsat’s Chief Technology Office (CTO) business unit sits at the core of our business and focuses on innovative technology development and engineering. The CTO maintains a centre of excellence for technology and broader infrastructure-related innovation, translating market needs into core expansion programmes to enable market development. We ensure that Inmarsat’s products and services are constantly pushing the boundaries of satellite communications.  The CTO team is responsible for delivering Inmarsat development programmes, including satellites and launchers, ground infrastructure (ground stations, networks, user terminals and access technology), regulatory, market access and product and service development. 

Job Description

The Advanced Concepts and Technologies (ACT) team sits within the CTO division. The ACT team leads the exploration of breakthrough innovations for Inmarsat by focussing on early stage business opportunities, exploring various advanced system concepts and performing technology feasibilities and trade-off. The ACT team is responsible for:

• Enabling a pipeline of innovation opportunities by entering into partnerships
• Performing due diligence on internally and externally identified opportunities
• Performing in-depth technological and business model analysis, trade-offs and studies
• Building and delivering proof of concepts, proof of value and prototypes to validate these opportunities, delivered through the management of multidisciplinary and cross divisional team structures

The team is responsible for exploring, validating and unlocking the value of new advanced concepts, ranging from satellite or terrestrial infrastructures, down to user terminal components, on earth and in space.

Through feasibility studies, the team performs technological assessments and determine if the technology has the potential to be disruptive, exploring whether Inmarsat should be a key player, and/or protect the business from risks associated with it. Additionally, the team looks after the design and delivery of proof of concepts demonstrators, in order to de-risk the biggest challenges of an advanced concept at the lowest cost.

The purpose of the team is as strategic as it is transformative of Inmarsat business. The team will regularly report its findings to the rest of the organisation. Furthermore, the team will initiate conversations around future roadmaps, recommend prototype “studio” designs and assess technology fit of innovations either brought in internally, by start-ups and/ or industrial partners.

Primary role purpose:

The ideal candidate will above all be able to demonstrate a thorough grasp of multidisciplinary thinking and the ability to synthesize new technical and commercial information extremely rapidly.

The successful candidate has strong engineering skills. You will be responsible for exploring, validating and unlocking the option value of new advanced concepts, ranging from infrastructures, down to components or algorithms. As a lead and deliver the new product and service concepts you will be in charge of and be responsible for defining the strategic fit with Inmarsat. Through feasibility studies, you will perform technological assessments and determine if the technology has potential to be disruptive, whether Inmarsat should be a key player, and/or protect the business from risks associated with it. Additionally, you will manage the scoping and development of prototype demonstrators in order to de-risk the biggest challenges of an advanced concept at the lowest cost.

You will be expected to take an entrepreneurial approach to your work seeking out opportunities proactively and making connections between different external partners and potential new business lines.

The responsibilities of the candidate will be split between Advanced Concepts End to End Systems Engineering and Spectrum engineering work.

Advanced Concepts Engineering - Key Responsibilities:

• Lead new concepts development from ideation to prototype delivery and business case approval
• Maintain the strategic focus of the projects in charge of, turning ideas into concepts and concepts into reality
• Contribute to securing  anchor customers for these concepts, working closely in collaboration with business units
• Articulate strategy, performance, technical, legal, regulatory and commercial value to prospect customers targeted for these concepts
• Engage with and develop relevant ecosystems to unlock new concepts delivery and new capabilities leveraging on Inmarsat existing assets and enabling company growth
• Conduct feasibility studies to assess technology trends and whether these new concepts adopted by various industries could become major disrupters to Inmarsat and its current markets
• Deliver cutting edge innovation prototypes designed to explore and measure feasibility (Proof of Concepts), value (Proof of Value), and usability (prototypes) of new and advanced concepts at minimum cost
• Provide structure, directional clarity and drive for fact-finding, data-driven decision making and intellectual rigour
• Explore for each concepts in charge of a wide range of topics across strategy, commercial, marketing, finance, legal
• Become the key technical  point of contact for large delivery programmes with national space agencies for the programme in charge of
• Influence national and international  policies relevant to the concepts being explored

Qualifications

Essential Knowledge and Skills:

• Master’s Degree or equivalent in a science, physics or technology discipline
• Solid understanding of Space Segment, Network, User Terminals and Platform Development innovations on-going within and outside the organisation
• Solid Programme Management skills
• Experience and ability to understand new technical fields quickly in areas such as:  Software Defined Radio technologies, programming and simulation tools for RF systems, AI/ Machine learning, and more as technology evolved.
• Familiar with concepts such as: Internet of things, Interference management and spectrum situational awareness, 5G and its challenges, Inter-satellite link communication technologies, outer space communication systems, Space debris management, Low Earth Orbit satellites architectures and orbital dynamics, High Altitude Platforms market and capabilities, in-orbit manufacturing, etc
• Hands-on expertise and willingness to lead test campaigns for new prototype developments
• Superb analytical skills and the ability to bring them to bear on a new subject or requirement to rapidly identify key drivers, features, implementation choices and pitfalls. Data driven and precise, you will be able to constantly replace this knowledge to match a highly dynamic market
• Ability to matrix-manage a diverse set of colleagues as projects and experimentations evolve.
• You will be able to fully engage, challenge and debate technical solutions with the Subject Matter Experts, both internal and external
• Excellent self and team awareness skills to guide interactions to the most positive outcomes
• Curious and capable of self-training on technology trends to support shaping the strategic focus of the corporate innovations
• Comfortable working on concepts with a lot of unknowns, creative thinker and problem solver
• Articulate and engaging written and presentation skills are considered gating criteria to communicate concepts and to support the writing of proposals
• Ability to thrive in an uncertain, ambiguous, entrepreneurial environment requiring adaptability and agility, by bringing structure, directional clarity and a drive for fact-finding, data-driven decision making
• Experience of taking an active role in establishing the baseline scope, timeline and cost of investment cases ensuring open, fair and reasoned analysis building upon inputs from others

Desirable Knowledge and Skills:

• Demonstrated adaptability and curiosity within the start-up environment
• Writing skills: capable of preparing Request for Proposal documentation, producing technology white papers etc
• Story telling skills to build awareness of the new concepts being developed
• Project management skills: Capable of leading and producing RFI/ RFP responses to partners and national/ international agencies
• Familiarity with lean start-up innovation methodologies
• Track record of integrity and commercial acumen
• Track record of strong negotiation skills in highly political environment
• Project management/planning skills

Additional Information

You must be eligible to work in this location advertised.

Inmarsat Values: 

Our values define Inmarsat’s culture and represent what we believe in. Inmarsat employees aspire to certain behaviours which support our corporate values, they create a stronger working environment and lie at the heart of our continued success as an organisation.

• Accountability – taking ownership, getting results and keeping our promises
• Respect – collaborating, embracing diversity and valuing differences
• Excellence – creating bold solutions for our customers and putting quality at the heart of everything we do