Principal Network Engineer, Planning & Performance

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 solutions that seamlessly roam 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. 

This role will help fulfill Skylo's mission of making satellite connectivity available to all. This individual will be a key contributor to the Network Design and Planning team, helping to plan, design, and evolve Skylo's satellite communication network infrastructure. Your work will ensure our network is reliable, scalable, and high-performance, meeting both current and future customer demands and business objectives. You will be a crucial part of a team defining the planning and performance of our world-first commercial direct-to-device satellite network.

• Perform satellite beam and RF planning. 
• Lead Earth Station planning and dimensioning.
• Lead Core network planning and dimensioning.
• Lead Cloud Application planning and dimensioning.
• Develop network performance & optimisation guidelines for Non-Terrestrial networks.
• Create technical specifications, engineering plans, and documentation with detailed designs for network elements.
• Optimize existing networks and services for cost-efficiency, performance, and scalability.
• Conduct proof-of-solutions to validate technical proposals.
• Drive continuous improvement loops with Operations & Implementation teams.
• Conduct periodic trend analyses for capacity and other metrics.
• Lead a small team of engineers, providing mentorship, technical guidance, and career development.
• Oversee project deliverables and ensure alignment with team and company goals.

• Experience in network design and planning, with a strong background in cellular telecommunications preferably acquired within a mobile network operator or within a vendor providing equipment and services to a mobile network operator.
• Experience with Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) is highly preferred.
• Proven ability to perform traffic forecasting and resource planning.
• Demonstrated expertise in defining KPI frameworks, baselines, and thresholds.
• Strong background in telecom standards, with a focus on satellite and mobile network systems.
• Experience with 3GPP standards, cloud-native architectures, and network virtualization (SBI, vRAN).
• Strong analytical skills to conduct KPI framework analysis, capacity planning, and optimization.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills for creating detailed technical documentation and presenting solutions.
• Hands-on experience with LTE eNodeB and 5G gNodeB
• Hands-on experience with EPC Core and 5G Core.
• Hands-on experience with Cloud technologies such as Virtual Machines, Docker, Kubernetes.
• Excellent understanding of 3gpp specifications related to RRC & NAS procedures for Terrestrial and Non-Terrestrial networks.
• Excellent understanding of end-to-end LTE and 5G call flows e.g. for SMS delivery, VoLTE, VoNR.
• Excellent understanding of inbound and outbound roaming architectures.
• Good understanding of end-to-end network protocols based on IP and Non-IP PDNs carried over telecom infrastructure.
• Previous experience managing or mentoring engineers.