AST SpaceMobile is building the first and only global cellular broadband network in space to operate directly with standard, unmodified mobile devices based on our extensive IP and patent portfolio and designed for both commercial and government applications. Our engineers and space scientists are on a mission to eliminate the connectivity gaps faced by today's five billion mobile subscribers and finally bring broadband to the billions who remain unconnected.
Position Overview
We are seeking a Director of Change Management to lead a critical operational function responsible for governing all changes across our Gateway (ground segment) and Satellite (space segment) domains. This role owns the end-to-end change lifecycle - from intake and risk assessment through scheduling, execution, and post-implementation review - ensuring every change protects network availability and achieves a high rate of successful, non-disruptive implementation.
The ideal candidate will serve as the authoritative change-control authority and chair of the Change Advisory Board (CAB), ensuring that changes to gateways, satellites, and payloads meet defined readiness, risk, and rollback criteria before they are approved and deployed to the live network.
Key Responsibilities:
- Lead the design, governance, and continuous improvement of the enterprise change management process spanning Gateway and Satellite/Payload domains
- Chair the Change Advisory Board (CAB), facilitating cross-domain review, risk assessment, and Go/No-Go authorization for all normal, standard, and emergency changes
- Establish and enforce change policies, risk-classification criteria, maintenance windows, and rollback/back-out requirements to safeguard network availability, with all changes recorded and managed in Jira in line with the FCAPS operations standard
- Own the forward schedule of change, coordinating gateway, RAN, satellite, and payload changes to prevent conflicts and minimize customer-facing service impact
- Provide final Go/No-Go authorization for changes based on readiness, risk, blast radius, and rollback assurance across Gateway and Satellite domains
- Ensure repeatability, traceability, and auditability of all change records, approvals, and post-implementation reviews
- Lead post-implementation reviews and root-cause analysis of failed or rolled-back changes, driving corrective actions and measurable improvement in change success rate
- Collaborate with Service Delivery, Service Assurance, Network and Satellite Operations, and R&D to align change readiness, validation evidence, and deployment sequencing - including gating changes on Golden Beam Acceptance outcomes where service beams are affected
- Prevent unauthorized, high-risk, or insufficiently planned changes from reaching the production network
- Define and report change management KPIs - change success rate, change-related incidents, emergency-change ratio, and schedule adherence - to executive stakeholders
- Build, lead, and mentor the change management team, promoting a disciplined change culture that positions change control as a critical safeguard of network availability
Qualifications
Education:
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Telecommunications, Systems Engineering, or a related technical field
- Master's degree in Engineering Management, Business Administration, or a related discipline preferred; ITIL certification (Change/Release Management) strongly preferred
Experience:
- Minimum of 15+ years of experience in telecommunications, satellite communications, or network operations, including significant experience owning change or release management
- At least 5+ years leading change management, CAB governance, or operational readiness functions in a complex, mission-critical environment
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience governing changes across both ground-segment (gateway/RAN) and space-segment (satellite/payload) systems
- Strong background in ITIL-aligned change, release, and configuration management practices
- Experience implementing change automation, CAB workflows, and forward-schedule tooling (e.g., ServiceNow or Jira)
- Familiarity with complex network architectures, maintenance windows, and satellite pass/contact scheduling constraints
- Proven ability to reduce change-related incidents and improve change success rate across a live production network
Soft Skills:
- Strong leadership and team-building capabilities
- Sound judgment and decisiveness to authorize or halt changes, including under emergency-change and time-critical conditions
- Proven ability to collaborate across cross-functional technical teams
- Strong interpersonal and stakeholder management skills
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Meticulous attention to detail to ensure the accuracy and completeness of change records and risk assessments
- Ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced environment
Technology Stack:
- IT service management and change management platforms (e.g., ServiceNow, Jira Service Management)
- Understanding of gateway/RAN and satellite/payload architectures and their operational change constraints
- Change scheduling, CMDB, and configuration management tools and workflows
- Familiarity with network monitoring, availability, and incident management platforms
- Dashboards and reporting tools for change KPIs, success rates, and availability impact analysis
- General knowledge of distributed systems, network integration, and release/deployment pipelines
Physical Requirements
- Ability to work in a standard office environment and use a computer for extended periods
- Ability to work in a network/satellite operations center environment as needed
- Ability to lift up to 25lbs
- Capability to participate in virtual and in-person meetings
- Will require extensive travel based on business needs
This job description may not be inclusive to the duties and responsibilities listed. Additional tasks may be assigned to the employee from time to time or the scope of the job may change as needed by business demands.
AST SpaceMobile is an Equal Opportunity, at will Employer; employment is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.
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