One team. Global challenges. Infinite opportunities. At Viasat, we’re on a mission to deliver connections with the capacity to change the world. For more than 35 years, Viasat has helped shape how consumers, businesses, governments and militaries around the globe communicate. We’re looking for people who think big, act fearlessly, and create an inclusive environment that drives positive impact to join our team.
What you'll do
Space agencies around the world are investing heavily into lunar exploration with the aim of establishing the Moon as a platform for mankind to become a multi-planetary species. Lunar exploration missions are furthering key scientific objectives around surviving and prospering in space as well as providing information on the origins of life as a whole. The lunar roadmap foresees in-situ resource utilisation on the Moon to establish a permanent human presence during the 2030s, as well as using the Moon as a “refuelling station” for further space exploration to Mars and beyond.
As part of the investment into lunar exploration, European Space Agency (ESA) created the Moonlight programme – a private-public partnership. Moonlight will develop new communications and navigation capabilities and services that will be provided to missions on and around the Moon through the launch of dedicated infrastructure.
Viasat is the design authority for the communications service and responsible for the design and procurement of space segment, ground segment and user infrastructure to enable lunar communications services by the end of the decade. You will own the commercial voice of Moonlight inside Viasat – translating lunar mission needs (navigation, PNT, telemetry, high-rate data return) into viable service offerings and phased roadmaps.
The Product Manager role will assess the lunar market and identify the connectivity propositions to unlock opportunities within them. The conceptual propositions will be developed based on research into the market across the lunar value chain, including direct customer insight. Working closely with Moonlight Partners, Institutions, customers and across internal Viasat teams, this role will ensure engineering/technology design remains tightly coupled with the connectivity jobs lunar users want to be done.
The day-to-day
- Engagement with institutional and commercial customers to understand their needs, timeline and use cases for the services that we have and build the product roadmap and prioritisation of capabilities with the programme team.
- Lead discovery workshops with ESA payload providers, lander operators, and national agencies to surface detailed comms & navigation use-cases, latency/throughput targets, and service-level expectations.
- Build and iterate a business‐case model (CAPEX/OPEX, pricing, service-tier revenue, IRR) that feeds Moonlight phase-gate reviews and executive investment decisions.
- Define the minimum viable product (MVP) for the first Moonlight service tranche—coverage arcs, link budgets, user-terminal specs, and ground-segment integration—then track readiness to launch.
- Coordinate interoperability discussions with partner constellations and surface assets to ensure seamless user experience across lunar transfer, lunar orbit and surface operations.
- Assessment of the ecosystem and competitor propositions
- Own product requirements documents (PRDs), draft pricing frameworks (subscription vs. capacity licenses), and outline channel strategies (direct ESA procurement, partner resellers, gov-funded missions, commercial ISPs).
- Close engagement with the programme technical leads to understand the capabilities that are being developed;
- Track regulatory & standards alignment: CCSDS links, space-asset spectrum filings, NASA LunaNet interoperability.
- Deliver relevant user-onboarding toolset (coverage planner, SLAs, service feasibility, data-usage dashboards) in collaboration with the engineering team and consortium partners
• Definition of customer onboarding process flows, requirements and tools for various customer missions
• Establishing product interoperability concepts with various lunar communications players
What you'll need
- Extensive product management or systems engineering experience, ideally in satcom or spacecraft comms
- Demonstrated ability to work with cross-functional SW/HW teams and influence commercial or agency partners
- Ability to conceptualise and evolve product propositions based on customer insight
- Skills to gather market intelligence/feedback and interpret that into solutions that can be built by engineering
- Masters degree in a related engineering discipline
- Commercial experience in positioning new products, ideally in the connectivity market
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
What will help you on the job
- Experience in new product design and development in the satcom market
- Familiarity with 3GPP NTN, CCSDS standards, optical inter-satellite links, software-defined payloads.
- Experience securing public-private funding or writing bid responses for agency procurements.
- Collaborative mind-set and experience of working across international institutions and partners
- Comfort presenting at international forums (IAC, ESA workshops) and engaging multi-cultural stakeholder groups.
#LI-BBS
At Viasat, we consider many factors when it comes to compensation, including the scope of the position as well as your background and experience. Base pay may vary depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Additional cash or stock incentives may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to a range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the position offered. Learn more about Viasat’s comprehensive benefit offerings that are focused on your holistic health and wellness at https://careers.viasat.com/benefits.
EEO Statement
Viasat is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, seeking to create a welcoming and diverse environment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital status, genetics, age, or veteran status or any other applicable legally protected status or characteristic. If you would like to request an accommodation on the basis of disability for completing this on-line application, please click here.
