Director of Flight Software
Lonestar Data Holdings Inc
St. Petersburg, Florida 33711
https://www.lonestarlunar.com/
Contact:
Bert Sadtler
President
Boxwood Strategies
(410) 274-6707
email:BertSadtler
Introduction
Click for Lonestar Video
Join us on a venture that truly pushes boundaries. Tackle the technical challenges of bringing Cloud services and space hardware together on the Moon. Saving Earth’s data one byte at a time. Forever be the first to bring edge computing truly to the edge.
Founded by a proven team of experts from Cloud and Space verticals, Lonestar Data Holdings Inc. is pioneering the future of cislunar services with a series of first-to-market data storage and cloud offerings in the premium market.
Lonestar is working to become the world’s data bank: the ultimate in premium storage and data safety for disaster recovery. Able to store data on the Moon, the largest and safest satellite in Earth’s orbit, and to then return that data to anywhere on the planet in less than five seconds – simultaneously disrupting and revolutionizing premium data storage creating a whole new level of service for data storage.
Our goal is enhanced premium storage sites on the Moon with the world’s premium most vital data secure from natural disasters, climate change, and Nation-State Action.
We are planning a series of carrier-neutral facilities open to all B2G and B2B sales channels.
The ultimate backup for the entire human race.
“Men [and women!] wanted a hazardous journey. Low wages, bitter cold, long hours of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in the event of success.”
-Earnest Shackleton, for his Antarctic Expedition
Summary of Position
The Director of Flight Software needs to be a self-starter who enjoys working independently with world-class partners at your disposal.
Reporting directly to the CEO, the Director of Flight Software will be responsible for the spaceflight software payload development for a groundbreaking series of Lonestar smart payloads bringing edge processing and data storage to the market launching to the Moon via the NASA CLPS initiative. Move quickly, break things, deliver cool new stuff.
This is a virtual role but the Director of Flight Software is required to have a permanent residence in the Continental US.
Required Experience
3-10 years of demonstrated technical experience in aerospace avionics software development, including leading teams.
Current US Citizenship or US Green Card
Space product development, especially single-board computer (SBC) avionics.
Demonstrated ability to deliver flight software, preferably on Linux.
Demonstrated experience in creative problem-solving in support of teammates in external customer-facing situations.
Demonstrated experience in enterprise-class software services on hardware constrained by bandwidth or processing availability.
Demonstrated experience having created and implemented a software development and test schedule where progress was tracked and product/service was delivered on time.
Desired Experience
If no direct start-up experience, a willingness to learn and adapt quickly to working in a fast-moving startup environment.
Demonstrated experience in space software development, especially in high radiation environments.
Demonstrated experience in space hardware development, especially in high radiation environments.
Demonstrated experience in enterprise-class software services on constrained space hardware.
Demonstrated three years or more experience in space network telecommunications.
Duties and Responsibilities
Be focused on the Venn Diagram of Cloud services ⋂ space hardware intersection.
Learn what you don’t know.
Appreciate and embrace this as a critical hybrid position.
Write and test code.
Lead the software effort across employees, consultants and partners.
Our first launch is JUNE 2023 so execute, execute, execute!
Lonestar Mission Statement
To leverage the unique qualities of the Moon to provide premium services to meet unmet market demand on Earth and on the Moon in data storage, edge of network services, and more.
Lonestar Company Culture
Experienced, efficient, and elite. Customer-focused, goal orientated. GYSHIDO Masters. We are an equal opportunity employer with a firm belief in IDIC.
Top Priorities to be Accomplished During the First 6-12 Months
During the pre-hiring discussions, learn about the company’s capabilities and understand immediate challenges. Then, draft an outline to be reviewed with the CEO of your plan and the short-term goals you will prioritize.
Examples of Short Term Goals could include:
Collect and prioritize software mission requirements with the commercial team
Understand the hardware development plan and capabilities with the hardware partner
Develop the software architecture and implementation plan
Work with Canonical to bring up Ubuntu on a Polarfire SoC SBC
Work with Canonical and edge processing customers to bring their applications up on Ubuntu
Work with Valkyrie to implement a Graphical Knowledge Database on Ubuntu
Develop mission-specific software to meet commercial needs
Integrate and test your solution on the bench and in the lunar lander
Hold your breath for launch and landing
Operate your software flawlessly on the Moon!
Geographic Location Requirements
Remote U.S. location acceptable
Western U.S. near an aerospace/electronics hub preferred
Compensation
Base salary $135K-$150K
Ground-Floor Earned (vested) equity
Glory to you and your House
Benefits Summary
Lonestar has a service agreement with Venteur to manage the health benefits. Under the agreement, Lonestar pays Venteur the monthly fee and they arrange for insurance coverage or healthcare reimbursement.
Venteur is a licensed insurance broker in 50 states. They offer plans that are available in your state, and likely the plan you already have (assuming you want to stay in the same network as your existing doctors). They will show you a variety of plans available and you can select the coverage that best fits your needs. The plan is designed so that the payment covers a gold plan for you, but you can select something else, and use the excess funds for another health plan (dental or vision) or to create a fund for other qualified healthcare expenses.
The Recruitment Process
Lonestar has retained Boxwood Strategies to conduct a different kind of recruitment. We have selected Boxwood because we are believers in Boxwood’s unique approach to candidate selection and qualification. While this process is different, we feel that it genuinely offers both candidates and the company the best opportunity to get to know each other at a deeper level than is typical with the conventional interview approach.
Please click for a short video on the Boxwood Process.
Executive Leadership Bios
Mr. Christopher (Chris) Stott, Founder, Chair, and Chief Executive Officer (Hiring Manager)
Christopher (Chris) Stott is the founder of Lonestar and is presently its Chair and Chief Executive Officer. He is committed to hiring more executive management for the day-to-day operations of the company as it continues to grow, as his expertise is in management and sales. Chris has unique space specific sales and marketing experience having served as a successful executive with two of the world’s largest Fortune 50 aerospace corporations: Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Chris has built upon his commercial sales training from the Boeing Company with further sales and program management experience from Lockheed Martin.
Chris is also the founder and Executive Chair of ManSat, the world’s largest commercial provider of satellite spectrum. ManSat is a profitable company that has delivered consistent returns to its shareholders over the last twenty years and is recognized as having founded the Isle of Man’s annual billion-dollar space industry.
Chris is a US Citizen and is a member of the faculty at the International Space University (ISU), of which he is also an alumnus and where he served as a Main Board Trustee for 15 years, successfully turning around the University’s finances and expanding its programs internationally. He is also the founder of ISU’s International Institute of Space Commerce and US based Institute of Space Commerce.
Chris has authored a variety of works and articles on space commercialization. He serves on the Board of several not-for-profits and is a Co-Founder of Geeks Without Frontiers.
Dr. Mark Matossian, Chief Operating Officer
Dr. Mark Matossian is a veteran of aerospace and Silicon Valley startups, Dr. Matossian most recently spent 13 years managing global projects at Google – from satellites to data centers to Android. There, he specialized in scaling up new products and services, leading projects across Asia, Europe, and South America. He is a co-founder of Solstar Space Co., which partnered with Blue Origin and NASA to develop innovative satellite constellation telecom services for spacecraft.
As part of his aerospace work at Google, Dr. Matossian worked on the precursor to OneWeb; led program management of the Titan Aerospace UAV effort; and guided substantial growth at Terra Bella. At Terra Bella, he managed Earth imaging spacecraft production and launch operations, shifting the organization from a prototype-focused startup to a process-driven, scalable venture.
Dr. Matossian also worked extensively on the data center and Android smartphone operations of Google. He led the global manufacturing and logistics for the compute, storage and networking equipment for Google’s data centers worldwide (a top five global manufacturer), led the manufacturing of advanced streaming prototype products for Android, and led several international smartphone partner relationships in the development of virtual reality applications.
Mr. William Hawkins, Chief Data Officer
Will has been working in Information Technology for 25 years, with the last 21 years being focused on data protection, disaster recovery, data management, and business continuity. After serving as a Principal Engineer for Veritas/Symantec for 5 years and as Principal Consultant for Commvault for 5 years, Will launched a specialty data protection firm, Enterprise Data Solutions, Inc., which has served the needs of national, state, and local governments as well as the aerospace, financial, telecom, manufacturing, and healthcare industries.
Will has vast experience with architecting data management environments, guiding critical feedback and direction for product managers, implementing data protection solutions, as well as auditing, optimizing, and recovering data protection environments. He has excellent communication, troubleshooting, and project management skills to work through the toughest environments to help accelerate projects to completion, even in complex political environments. Will also has extensive experience in supporting legal discovery, public disclosure requests, and sensitive data governance.
Will’s work requires familiarity not just with data protection products and services, but with the various operating systems, applications, storage platforms, hypervisors, and networks with which these products interact, and he has advanced skills in various areas and an ability to communicate with stakeholders in all areas impacted by data protection activities.
Engagements frequently include full lifecycle attention, supporting the client from pre-design phase through implementation and ongoing management, as well as handling upgrades, implementation of additional Commvault features, executing migrations, planning for large scale recovery, and assisting eDiscovery processes. As of late, engagements have included a heavy focus on hardening of data protection environments against the impact of ransomware.
Ms. Carol Goldstein, Chief Administrative Officer
Ms. Goldstein serves as Lonestar’s Chief Administrative Officer. Ms. Goldstein comes with over 30 years of corporate finance experience in telecommunications, satellites, and space. Ms. Goldstein’s investment banking career began at Morgan Stanley in mergers & acquisitions and corporate finance, leading financings in satellite communications and competitive telecoms. Ms. Goldstein was subsequently Managing Director, Head of Telecom, Media and Technology Corporate and Investment Banking at both ABN AMRO and ING Bank. Ms. Goldstein has served as Senior Advisor at EA Markets, as Chief Financial Officer of Odyssey Moon, and as a Main Board Member of Space Services Inc. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Ms. Goldstein was an attorney with Davis Polk & Wardwell.
Click to download the Candidate Self-Assessment Form
