Full ownership of day-to-day facility operations, budget, staffing, and revenue from external rentals
Deliver consistently short processing timelines for Alpha missions (target 5-10 business days from spacecraft arrival to fairing encapsulation)
Build and manage a commercial leasing program: pricing, contracts, scheduling, and customer onboarding for third-party users
Maintain required environmental cleanliness levels, contamination monitoring, ESD protection, and hazardous-processing capabilities (hydrazine, cold-gas, green propellants, small ordnance)
Provide environmental updates/reports to internal and external customers
Work with the Firefly Mission Management team to support customer reviews
Work with and lead a shared team of technicians, engineers, safety specialists, and logistics personnel; scale the organization as launch rate and rental demand grow
Serve as the launch site's primary interface with every payload customer internal and external from contract kick-off through final handover to the launch pad
Keep all facility certifications current and ensure full compliance with range safety, ITAR/EAR, and Firefly safety standards
Coordinate facility upgrades and new capability additions in parallel with ongoing internal and external customer campaigns

Bachelor's degree in engineering, aerospace, or operations-related field
5+ years working in satellite or payload processing cleanrooms
Hands-on experience running or supporting commercial payload processing campaigns for orbital launch vehicles
Proven track record operating a shared or multi-tenant processing facility (commercial, government, or contractor-owned)
Comfortable negotiating and closing facility-use agreements or service contracts with commercial spacecraft operators
Thorough understanding of cleanroom protocols, contamination control plans, and hazardous operations safety
Must be a U.S. Person (U.S. citizen or permanent resident)

Payload Processing Facility Manager

About this role