Saturday, July 26, 2014

The 2014 Edition of "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs in Space!"

          by Chuck Black

Time marches on, and those of us looking for gainful employment in the space sector will notice quite a few changes from the August 13th, 2013 post "Jobs, Jobs, Jobs in Space!" For those who'd like to keep up to date,  here's the latest listing of places you should be approaching if you'd like to work in the space industry.
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The 16th Annual Aerospace and Defence Top 100 growing Companies of 2013 - What better place to start than with the biggest and fastest growing firms in this area. Produced jointly by PricewaterhousCoopers and Flight Global, the report outlines the trends in the industry and ranks the top companies by revenues and profitability.

Astronauts4Hire - A US based, 501(c)(3) non-profit formed in 2010 to recruit and train qualified scientists and engineers for the rigors of spaceflight. The organization conducts a range of activities related to commercial astronaut workforce development and train its members as professional astronaut candidates who can assist researchers, payload developers, and spaceflight providers with mission planning and operations support.

The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) - Although the CSA no longer has a formal career page and CSA job links now connect to the Federal government career page, the CSA remains home to the Canadian Space Directory, a listing of companies and organizations which work with the CSA. And while it's slow going to apply to these organizations individually, it's also indicative of future trends in Canadian space activities.
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The European Space Agency (ESA) career page - It's worth noting that the ESA has more job openings that the CSA, since the ESA web page includes actual job vacancies and useful, industry specific career facts. Ah, Paris in the spring.

HE Space - Denmark  based, specialist supplier of manpower for space programs with offices in the Netherlands, Germany and the US. The firm also manages the Jobs in Space Linked-In group.

The International  Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) - For those who are looking from something a little different from the typical opportunity requiring a science or engineering degree, the IAMAW represents more than 40,000 Canadian workers in air transport and a wide range of manufacturing including aircraft, auto parts, buses, aerospace, electronics, light and heavy machinery, tools and appliances.

Jobs in Space - A mostly European based space industry forum for posting vacancy notices and resumes, organized by Microcom Systems, a UK based consultancy firm which bills itself as being focused on satellite communications and space technology.

NASA Jobs - A public listing of available National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) openings. According to the site, NASA is one of "the best places to work in the Federal government" as ranked by federal employee satisfaction, which makes it officially more fun than the criminal justice system, the healthcare industry or the US Congress.

The NewSpace Global listing of top 300 NewSpace companies - This list is divided up into three smaller lists covering the 100 most influential privately held newspace companies (the NSG 100), a second list covering 100 additional privately held newspace companies perceived as being "on the bubble" of growth (NSG OTB) plus a third list of top rated publicly traded space companies (the NSG PTC). A surprising number of companies on these three lists are Canadian and a surprising number of the rest have offices and employment opportunities in Canada.

The Satellite Today Career Center - Focused on US based jobs in the commercial satellite industry. Includes a comprehensive satellite companies web directory

The SpaceRef Career Center - A small service, acting mostly as an additional source of advertising revenue for the publisher, but also hoping to leverage the "450,000 unique readers who visit SpaceRefNASA WatchSpaceRef BusinessSpaceRef Canada and the Astrobiology Web each month," who might be looking for work.

Space Careers - A French based but English language site focused on "the top jobs and the best talents in the industry." Contains a jobs center (where job hunters and recruiters register), a space industry directory, a news and resource section with space news RSS feeds and a LinkedIn page. Maintained by Spacelinks, a specialist staffing consultancy focused on the European space and defense industry.

The Space Telescope Science Institute (STSCI) listing of Employment Opportunities - Located on the Johns Hopkins University Campus in Baltimore, Maryland, the STSCI manages both the Hubble Space Telescope and its successor, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). They offer "the wonder of 21st century space exploration in a job that offers a competitive salary and generous benefits."

UNIFOR - This union, created from the 2013 merger of the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP), might not represent the typical career path imagined by the average astronaut wannabe, but Canada's largest private sector union does represent aerospace workers at Boeing Canada (Local 2169), Bombardier/ de Havilland (Local 112), Cascade Aerospace (Local 114), CMC Electronics, Magellan Aerospace (Local 3005) and Pratt and Whitney Canada (Local 510), which makes it worth checking out.

https://careers-virgingalactic.icims.com/jobs/search?ss=1&searchLocation=&searchCategory=&hashed=0Virgin Galactic (VG) - For those who prefer suborbital space travel, this firm has a jobs board with literally dozens of new positions waiting to be filled.

The Wikipedia listing of government agencies engaged in space exploration - Categorized according to capabilities and including links to the listed agency's primary website. Consider this as one stop shopping for those inclined towards government service. 

The Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) careers page - The company that built the worlds first "commercial spacecraft" has dozens of job openings covering a wide range of expertise. 

1 comment:

  1. Chuck,

    Your list of places to look for space jobs is interesting, but I really think you should have mentioned that any technical jobs in the space industry in the US really require at least a Green Card to permit the individual to apply, in order to meet ITAR regulations.

    It can be rather disheartening to a new or unsophisticated person looking to work in the space technical field in the US to not understand that US Citizenship or the equivalent is absolutely required for all space, and even aerospace, technical positions. That is an important factor in looking for employment in this industry in that country.

    I, for one, would love to work for SpaceX, but it simply can’t happen unless I’m a Green Card resident at the very least and that’s impossible to do while living and working in Canada.

    Paul

    Paul Roberts B.Eng, P.Eng
    Sr. Mechanical Engineer, Robotics and Automation, MDA.

    ReplyDelete

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