Senior Manager, End-to-End System Architecture, Integration & Testing

The job responsibilities outlined in this document are not exhaustive and may evolve over time and be reviewed according to business needs.

PROGRAMME DESCRIPTION

IRIS2 is the new European Union secure satellite constellation. This project is the European Union's answer to the pressing challenges of tomorrow to provide secure connectivity services and enhanced communication capacities to the EU and its Member States. In addition, as well as to governmental users, private companies and European citizens while benefiting from ensuring high-speed internet broadband to cope with connectivity dead zones.

SES – together with other consortium partners and core members, was selected by the European Commission to build and to operate the IRIS2 multi-orbit satellite constellation.

The IRIS2 team enters next project phases, we seek and there is a strong need of support for all the activities around service provisioning and products that the system can offer in the future.

ROLE DESCRIPTION SUMMARY

The Senior Manager, End-to-End System Architecture, Integration & Testing is responsible for defining, governing, integrating, and validating the end-to-end system architecture for a Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) satellite constellation delivering 5G Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) services. This role ensures that all system elements including space, ground, transport, network, software, and operations are architected, integrated, and validated as a coherent end-to-end solution that meets technical, operational, and commercial objectives.

Working across multiple engineering disciplines, the Senior Manager serves as the technical integration leader, aligning system architecture across satellite payloads, spacecraft, ground segment, radio access network, core network, network management, operations, user terminals, and service platforms. The role also owns the end-to-end integration strategy, laboratory infrastructure, system verification, and test execution from development through commercial deployment.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES / KEY RESULT AREAS

End-to-End System Architecture

• Own the end-to-end system architecture for the MEO constellation.
• Ensure architectural consistency across all system domains, including the space segment, ground segment, transport network, 5G NTN radio access, 5G Core, OSS/BSS, user terminals, and service platforms.
• Ensure the end-to-end simulator is enhanced and representative of the target solution by integrating the algorithms designed by the different System Engineering teams, including orchestration with SMO, SDN-C, and the 5G scheduler, in order to derive sizing requirements that accurately reflect the intended system.
• Develop and maintain the end-to-end system architecture, interface definitions, and system design documentation.
• Lead architecture reviews and ensure that subsystem designs are aligned with the overall system objectives.
• Coordinate with the different System Engineering teams to ensure consistency in architectural trade-off analyses, considering performance, scalability, reliability, latency, availability, cost, and operational efficiency.
• Coordinate with the System Engineering teams and the Technology & Standardization teams to ensure compliance with applicable 3GPP NTN standards, industry specifications, and regulatory requirements.

Cross-Functional Technical Leadership

• Collaborate with satellite, payload, RF, modem, networking, software, cloud, security, operations, and product engineering teams.
• Coordinate technical decisions across engineering organizations to ensure integrated system performance.
• Identify architecture gaps, interface issues, and integration risks early in the development lifecycle.
• Establish governance processes for architecture reviews, interface control, and design change management.

System Integration

• Develop the overall end-to-end integration strategy and integration roadmap.
• Define subsystem integration sequences and interface validation plans.
• Lead integration activities across hardware, software, network, and operational systems.
• Resolve cross-domain integration issues involving satellite systems, ground infrastructure, and terrestrial mobile networks.
• Drive interoperability between internal systems and external partners, vendors, and mobile network operators.

Verification, Validation & Testing

• Own the end-to-end verification and validation strategy.
• Define system-level test plans, test methodologies, acceptance criteria, and success metrics.
• Lead system integration testing, interoperability testing, performance testing, regression testing, resilience testing, and operational readiness testing.
• Ensure complete end-to-end validation covering space-to-ground communications, user connectivity, mobility, handover, QoS, security, and service continuity.
• Lead root cause analysis of complex system issues and drive corrective actions.

Laboratory & Test Infrastructure

• Establish and manage end-to-end system integration laboratories.
• Define laboratory architecture supporting realistic system emulation of satellite, ground, transport, and 5G NTN environments.
• Develop hardware-in-the-loop (HIL), software-in-the-loop (SIL), and digital twin capabilities where appropriate.
• Oversee acquisition, deployment, configuration, and maintenance of integration and test equipment.
• Ensure laboratories support continuous integration, automated testing, regression testing, and system qualification.

Process & Quality

• Define integration and testing processes aligned with systems engineering best practices.
• Drive automation of integration and testing workflows where practical.
• Establish KPIs for system integration, defect tracking, test coverage, and release readiness.
• Support certification, customer acceptance testing, and commercial service readiness.

Leadership

• Build and lead a multidisciplinary team of system architects, integration engineers, and test engineers.
• Mentor technical staff and develop organizational capabilities in systems engineering and integration.
• Manage project schedules, resource planning, budgets, and external technical partners.
• Foster a collaborative engineering culture focused on technical excellence and execution.

QUALIFICATIONS BACKGROUND AND EXPERIENCE

• Master’s degree in Telecommunications, Engineering, Computer Science, or a related discipline.
• 12+ years of experience in telecommunications, satellite communications, wireless networking, or complex systems engineering.
• Demonstrated experience delivering and architecting large-scale end-to-end system integration programs.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in telecom systems integration, testing, or IVV, ideally within 5G, mobile core, RAN, satellite communications, or cloud-native network environments.
• Experience in end-to-end testing and validation of complex telecom systems is strongly preferred.

OTHER KEY REQUIREMENTS / COMMENTS

• The candidate must be eligible for a “SECRET” security clearance, in accordance with the national regulations as well as EU/ESA/NATO equivalents
• Willing to work 60% onsite from office
• Travel as required for project realization purposes