Senior Operations Specialist (Solar Stratospheric Aircraft Mission Planning)

ROLE HIGHLIGHTS - Role: Senior Operations Specialist (Solar Stratospheric Aircraft Mission Planning) - Department: HAPS - Location: Valencia, Spain - Working type: On site, with limited remote working - Employment is subject to applicable security screening (incl. SUPO, where required) THE MISSION OF THE SENIOR OPERATIONS SPECIALIST (HAPS MISSION PLANNING) As Senior Operations Specialist (HAPS Mission Planning), you will shape where, when and how ICEYE's stratospheric, solar-powered electric aircraft flies. You will build and maintain the operational weather picture before and during each flight, identify the right windows to launch, fly and recover, and turn weather, airspace, aircraft performance and energy constraints into a safe and achievable mission plan that you keep up to date as conditions evolve. The role is deliberately broad. Beyond mission planning, you will contribute across the Operations team: preparing and executing flight test campaigns, supporting ground control station operations, assessing flight results and feeding them back into the aircraft's development, and helping build the procedures and tools of an operations capability that will scale as the program grows. WHO ARE WE? ICEYE delivers space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities to governments and allied nations. This includes sovereign and turnkey ISR missions leveraging ICEYE's world-leading synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite technology, as well as access to data from the world's largest SAR satellite constellation. These capabilities enable partners to detect and respond to critical changes anywhere on Earth with unprecedented speed and accuracy, day or night and in any weather, supported by ultra high-resolution imagery and high-frequency revisits. As a trusted partner for defense, intelligence, security, and maritime domain awareness, ICEYE's near real-time data creates a tactical advantage for mission-critical operations. ICEYE operates internationally with offices in Finland, Poland, Spain, Japan, the UAE, Greece, Germany, and the US. The company has more than 900 employees, inspired by the shared vision of improving life on Earth by becoming the global source of truth in Earth Observation. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES FLIGHT OPERATIONS - Build and maintain the operational meteorological picture before and during the flight, using the available tools (forecast models, radiosondes, lidar and aircraft data), drift planning, and identify weather and terrain-related hazards relevant to the flight profile. - Identify suitable launch, flight and recovery windows and communicate them to the flight crew. - Develop and maintain the mission plan (route, altitude, speed profile and timing), customer mission goals, integrating weather, airspace, aircraft performance, aircraft health and energy constraints. - Continuously assess predicted cut-down and debris impact zones to keep the planned trajectory within the permitted ground impact area. - Maintain readiness for degraded operations for a return-to-home mission profile in case re-planning of a return is necessary or in case of the plane entering a degraded operational mode due to a mechanical or electrical servicing need. - Monitor aircraft progress against the plan, update it when required, and coordinate mission planning and meteorological decisions with the flight crew and engineering teams. WIDER OPERATIONS SUPPORT - Contribute to the planning, preparation and execution of flight test campaigns, including site preparation, pre-flight checks, launch and recovery activities. - Take on other crew positions or ground control station duties as operational needs require, building versatility across the Operations team. - Analyse flight data after each flight, report results and translate findings into improvements for the aircraft, its systems and operating procedures. - Develop and maintain operational procedures, checklists,