SATCOM Systems Engineer

A NATO organisation in Braine-l'Alleud is looking for a satellite communications engineer who can take a solution from an operational requirement all the way to acceptance testing. You would be the technical lead on acquisition projects: writing the specification, supporting evaluation, holding the design together through implementation, and supervising the testing at the end of it. What you would be doing Providing technical leadership to acquisition projects — integrated, interoperable solutions, technical specifications, evaluation support and acceptance testing. Contributing to solution architectures, evaluating alternatives and the trade-offs in cost, performance and scalability, and documenting the decisions that matter. Aligning solutions with the enterprise and solution architecture standards, security included. Defining and managing scoping, requirements and prioritisation; reviewing requirements for errors and omissions; documenting traceability and handling authorised changes to the baseline. Planning and driving systems development projects, selecting the methods and tools, reporting progress and building road maps for what comes next. Preparing pre-qualification questionnaires and tender invitations, producing detailed evaluation criteria for complex tenders and evaluating them. Acting as the routine technical contact point with suppliers on contract management. Overseeing design reviews, making sure the design balances functional and non-functional requirements, and managing the associated risks. Driving systems integration, test and acceptance — including automation and continuous integration — and giving authoritative advice on any part of it. Making sure SATCOM project proposals line up with NATO operational requirements, interoperability standards and future capability needs. What they are looking for A Bachelor's degree in a related discipline with three years of relevant experience. At least three years of practical SATCOM experience across the UHF and SHF domains. Deep knowledge of SATCOM architecture — budget calculation for a link, the modulation choices, coding that corrects errors, and how satellite networks are laid out. Strong radio-frequency engineering, and antennas — modelling how the signal travels in the bands SATCOM uses, and knowing what degrades it and what to do about that. SATCOM cybersecurity architecture principles, including encryption and secure communications design. Familiarity with DVB-S2 and DVB-S2X, MIL-STD-188, and software defined networking in SATCOM environments. Familiarity with modern military communication networks — interfaces, protocols and operational environments. Experience writing, analysing and commenting on technical documents, and the communication skills to make complex SATCOM concepts land with a non-specialist audience. Nice to have A Master's in telecommunications engineering with five years of relevant experience. Deployable CIS and Infrastructure as a Service, systems engineering and MBSE, and ITIL v4 Foundation. Recognised systems engineering or MBSE training or certification. An international environment with both military and civilian colleagues, and an understanding of NATO operational standards and procedures. Practical detail Braine-l'Alleud, Belgium — full time on site , normal office environment. 28 September to 31 December 2026, 600 hours in total. Graded at the equivalent of NATO G15. You must hold a valid clearance and be a citizen of a NATO member country with the right to work in Belgium. If link budgets and antenna work are your natural territory and you enjoy being the person who signs off that a system does what it promised, this is a strong one.