Senior 5G O-RAN Orchestration & SMO Engineer

Location: Betzdorf, Luxembourg or Long Beach, California, US. At least 60% onsite from the office is required; national and international travel is required.

Salary: $110,400–$151,800 annually for the US position.

Company

SES develops satellite connectivity services, including the meoSphere medium Earth orbit constellation for government, enterprise, and commercial customers.

What you will do

• Own the definition and implementation of the O-RAN Management Plane for regenerative onboard gNBs.
• Architect the interface between onboard 5G stacks and ground or onboard SMO platforms.
• Design and implement the O-RAN O1 interface for remote configuration, fault management, and performance monitoring.
• Define O1 specifications and custom YANG models for satellite-specific parameters.
• Prototype a secure NETCONF/TLS agent for ground-initiated Get/Set operations.
• Implement alarm reporting and performance-data collection for mission operations.

Requirements

• Track record of shipping production systems, ideally in telecom infrastructure or other high-reliability environments.
• Degree in aerospace, electrical, mechanical, or telecommunications engineering, physics, or a related field.
• Experience owning end-to-end technical scope from architecture and standards interpretation through implementation and operational readiness.
• Deep practical experience with O-RAN management, the O1 interface, and the 3GPP TS 28.xxx management framework in production systems.
• Experience designing and operating SMO-driven lifecycle management across configuration, fault, and performance domains.
• Experience designing extensible YANG management models and implementing them over NETCONF or REST-based interfaces.
• Production software engineering experience with C/C++ and Python, including code quality, robustness, and maintainability.
• Experience building and securing TLS-based management interfaces for constrained or high-latency environments.
• Ability to work across payload, platform software, and ground systems while making trade-offs under operational constraints.
• Eligibility for ESA, EU, NATO, or national SECRET personnel security clearances; willingness to undergo the required clearance procedure.

Nice to have

• Experience with spaceborne, airborne, or other constrained platforms where latency, bandwidth, and reliability are primary design drivers.
• Hands-on involvement in O-RAN Alliance activities, working groups, or interoperability efforts.
• Experience integrating management systems with ground-segment or mission-operations environments.

Culture & Benefits

• Permanent full-time employment in a high-ownership, fast-execution environment.
• Work requires at least 60% onsite attendance and national or international travel.
• Additional compensation and benefits may apply depending on location and employment terms.
• Equal employment opportunities are provided in accordance with applicable law.