I am based in Bath, UK, which is a beautiful city in the west of England, but I support the Starion Group across Europe. I’ve worked for the company for 11 years.
What does a typical day in your working life entail?
No two days are the same for me. I work for the Chief Commercial and Technology Office leading business development activities, visiting customers and colleagues, writing proposals, reviewing other people’s proposals, attending conferences and workshops, and, like everybody, dealing with emails. My work involves a fair amount of travel, but less than before the COVID pandemic.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
I most enjoy meeting customers, learning about their businesses, understanding their challenges, and then helping to define a solution that can help them with those challenges (which usually entails writing a proposal). Some customers we have worked with for many years, while others are new and may have completely different challenges they want solving.
What has been your most memorable career highlight or achievement?
There have been many, so I can’t pick just one!
I had the honour of meeting Gene Cernan, who was the last astronaut on the Moon as part of the Apollo 17 mission. I have had dinner under a Saturn V rocket listening to Gene Kranz talk about Apollo 13: “Failure is not an option”. And I have been a principal investigator for a space station astronaut refresher training experiment.
Then with Starion, I have helped to build our ground segment and space weather activities, culminating in the award of contracts for the Galileo Operations Preparation Facility (OPF) and Space Weather Payload Data Centre, and mission control systems for Astroscale and the UK Ministry of Defence.
Any tips for people trying to get jobs in your area of expertise?
Engineering, maths or science degrees are all great ways to enter the space industry. What is vital though, is a willingness to continually learn as part of the job – from colleagues, training, workshops and/or conferences, or in your own time through additional qualifications or courses – and the willingness to share that knowledge with others.
How do you wind down after a working day?
I play field hockey and do Park Runs (when I’m not injured!). I also love to walk, ski and travel in Europe and beyond.
Meet more of our team
If you’d like to find out what it’s like to work in other roles at Starion, read more stories from across the Group.