Alex Petit

Experience

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  Metro Installation Services, Inc

  Jun 2014 - Jan 2015

  Furniture Installer

  Assembled office furniture at multiple sites throughout DC, Maryland and Virginia. This consisted mostly of hooking up electrical wiring between cubicle panels and installing private offices and conference rooms. Occasionally supervised teams of up to three people on job sites where I read building drawings and placed furniture accordingly.

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  Virginia Tech Center for the Enhancement of Engineering Diversity

  Aug 2016 - May 2017

  Peer Mentor

  Mentored a group of 9 freshmen engineering students during their first year of Virginia Tech engineering. Held weekly meetings to inform the group of upcoming events, study strategies, and potential issues. Advised them on their future at Virginia Tech regarding decisions such as classes, professors, and housing.

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  Regulus Group

  Jun 2017 - Aug 2018

  Aeronautical Safety Engineer

  Provided engineering expertise in aviation technologies and systems in support of safety risk management initiatives and the development of safety cases for air traffic management systems.• Performed safety analyses and presented results to subject matter experts to help guide their decisions• Assisted in running Safety Risk Management Panels and documenting the results• Wrote Safety Risk Management Documents to be implemented in the National Airspace System.

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  Maxar Technologies

  Sept 2018 - Sept 2021

  Oversaw and coordinated all Flight Operations activities while acting as technical lead for the personnel that support Maxar's Space Imaging Mission.• Led the Flight Operations team in the handling and resolution of anomalies, troubleshooting and follow-up• Verified, supported, and enforced operational procedures and completion of required training• Assisted in procedure development and maintenance• Maintained a high level of situational awareness of all Flight Operations activities within the Mission Operations Center• Coordinated all flight operation activity and managed Spacecraft and Ground Systems safety as well as Ground System configurations• Interacted with various spacecraft support teams such as Spacecraft Engineering, Operations Engineering, Management, Production, and IT• Provided effective communication with team members, cross-departmental staff, and leaders regarding status, milestones, issues, and resolutions Show less Responsible for spacecraft commanding, telemetry monitoring, and addressing spacecraft anomalies as they occur. • Routinely performed pre-contact verifications with Ground Control Engineers to ensure successful communication is established between the ground system and the spacecraft• Ensured spacecraft tasking and planning provides error free output reducing the risk of faulting any of the spacecrafts within the DigitalGlobe constellation• Performed in-contact spacecraft commanding and state of health assessments to ensure health and safety of the spacecraft is maintained• Performed out of contact spacecraft telemetry trending and analysis to ensure continued health and safety of the spacecraft out of view of a ground station• Generated spacecraft availability reports for the Spacecraft Engineering Team• Acted as a Change Agent for the development and integration of next-generation cloud-based Command and Control Systems• Fixed and improved spacecraft perform files to avoid potential spacecraft faults and make communications more efficient Show less

  • Flight Operations Manager

    Jun 2020 - Sept 2021

  • Satellite Operations Engineer

    Sept 2018 - Jun 2020
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  Spaceflight Inc.

  Oct 2021 - Jul 2023

  • Influenced company Business Development strategies regarding proposals, RFIs, go to market strategy, and cost models for future missions• Built out spacecraft operations center at company headquarters - led effort with planning, design, selection and purchasing of hardware for the room• Hired and developed Spaceflight’s spacecraft operations team• Operated Sherpa Orbital Transfer Vehicles (OTV) in LEO using UHF, S, and X-bands for TT&C and data transfer• Built out cloud based spacecraft operations and transitioned spacecraft operations from external vendor to internal team• Led discussions independently with NASA teams to coordinate deorbiting a Sherpa OTV• Organized an internal and external cross-functional team consisting of four companies involved in radio troubleshooting efforts to achieve resolution of on-orbit radio connectivity challenges• Managed spacecraft operations budget - planned annual spend, reviewed and approved vendor invoices• Led efforts with Amazon Web Services on adopting edge-processing and edge-compute capabilities for the Sherpa OTV• Developed operational user stories and requirements for spacecraft• Developed user stories and requirements for spacecraft operations center Show less • Developed and executed operational test plans - led and oversaw pre-launch operational testing between three companies• Authored a memo to the Executive Leadership team explaining the value-proposition to transition spacecraft operations fromthird-party to internal management• Developed spacecraft operations plan and CONOPs for the company's first hosted payload mission• Acted as customer manager for the company's first hosted payload mission• Performed Amazon Web Services (AWS) Ground Station infrastructure deployments for uplink and downlink to spacecraft• Supported Spaceflight legal team in their drafting of FCC licensing applications• Shaped contracts and proposals for ground station providers and ground software vendors• Acted as PM for flight software, avionics, ground station, and operations vendors Show less

  • Spacecraft Operations Manager

    Jan 2023 - Jul 2023

  • Spacecraft Operations Engineer

    Oct 2021 - Jan 2023
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  Quantum Space

  Aug 2023 - Nov 2024

  Flight Operations Manager

  • Acted as program manager for cloud spacecraft operations platform provider and ground station provider including negotiating and executing contracts• Participated in go to market strategy discussions on core product and service offerings by providing operational feasibility, timelines, and cost inputs• Influenced product roadmap and pricing strategies for cloud software partner• Led legal compliance strategies in building out spacecraft operations to ensure ITAR/EAR compliance• Brought Launch and Early Operations (LEOP) in-house from bus provider to accelerate commissioning efforts• Developed LEOP pass plans and procedures for pathfinder vehicle• Designed spacecraft CONOPs, mission sequences, and procedures for pathfinder mission• Developed user stories and requirements for spacecraft operations center• Built out spacecraft operations center at company headquarters - led effort with planning, design, selection, and purchasing of hardware for the room• Architected Amazon Web Services cloud-based spacecraft operations center including mission planning and command and control systems• Managed spacecraft operations budget - forecasted monthly and annual spend, reviewed and approved vendor invoices Show less

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  Amazon

  Feb 2025 - now

  Mission Operations Manager