I’m a Service and Project Manager for Starion based in the Starion office in Frascati, Italy. Before this I worked at the European Space Agency’s European Centre for Earth Observation (ESA ESRIN).
What’s your role?
I’m a Service and Project Manager for Starion in Italy. I have been with the company for 8 years in total: for the past 3 years I’ve been based in the Starion office in Frascati and before that I worked at the European Space Agency’s European Centre for Earth Observation (ESA ESRIN).
What’s a typical day in your working life like?
Like most people in our industry, my days are very varied. I attend a lot of meetings. Some are regular planned meetings with clients, primes or subcontractors, but there are also a lot of ad hoc meetings, mainly within the working team to review the progress of activities, take stock of specific tasks and analyse technical issues, and share the way forward or plan resolutions. We regularly discuss new topics to work on and new problems that might impact ongoing activities.
Coordinating and monitoring the team’s work includes defining priorities or reallocating resources when needed to reshuffle activities. I am also the main project interface with sub-contractors, the prime and the client; it’s therefore important for me to maintain a good relationship with everyone.
In addition, I prepare, update, review and consolidate technical and programmatic documentation. I also manage change requests and contract extensions, and deal with budgets and other financial aspects of projects I work on. Each project is different, it also depends on whether we are the prime contractor or a subcontractor. For a few years I’ve done both.
I am a line manager, so I take care of my team, supporting each employee’s growth, dealing with their progression and annual reviews, and so on. On top of that, I support business development and contribute to bid proposals, mainly in the Earth observation (EO) domain.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
First, I love being part of the space industry. It is very interesting and something I’ve wanted to do since I was at university. I’m lucky as for most of my working life I have worked in the space industry. It is a challenging sector, with new technologies being introduced all the time, which makes it really interesting.
The EO domain is of great value for its intrinsic scope and purposes. The outputs of the programmes we work on form a big support for the research and scientific community.
I also like being part of an international community. My role as a Service and Project Manager working on ESA projects gives me the opportunity to interact with lots of people from across Europe, not just my Starion colleagues, but from many different organisations. I find my job really enjoyable!
What has been your most memorable career achievement?
There have been two periods in my working career that were very memorable. I was part of the frontline commissioning team at ESA for the launch of Sentinel-2A and Sentinel-2B. The first of these satellites was launched in 2015 and the second in 2017.
The preparatory activities before launch, the commissioning and the early operations phases were very tough and challenging, but it was really rewarding as both missions were successful.
In 2016, the whole Sentinel-2A team, including members of all other ESA centres involved, was given an award by the ESA Director General in Amsterdam. We spent a couple of unforgettable days with colleagues and our partners. It was a truly amazing event!
I really enjoyed working with the teams involved in the Sentinel-2 mission.
Do you have any tips for people trying to get jobs in your area of expertise?
First of all, you need an engineering background and to be passionate about space, as you have to deal with challenging periods that are so busy. But it’s a very exciting career and the big achievements you experience are amazing.
If you are interested in this kind of job, you have to start from the beginning and learn along the way, gradually and continuously improving both technical and soft skills. Experience is very important and will help you manage a team, service or project.
Soft skills are key because you have to work with people and everyone is different, so you need to be adaptable and be able to collaborate and communicate, and learn to trust your teammates. As a service/project manager, leadership skills, reliability, problem solving, time management and above all teamwork are top priorities, as they are needed to build a good and trusted relationship, first within the team and then with clients and subcontractors. You need to be able to build a solid infrastructure around you to deal with any challenges.
How do you wind down?
I used to wind down with many sports, but I now have an 8-year old daughter, so I don’t have as much time as before. During the week I try to swim when I can, play piano with my daughter and listen to music. At the weekend, I love to spend some time with my friends, get away to see Italian cities or go to the countryside to be outside with nature. I love skiing in winter and during the holidays I love to visit foreign countries, travel to the seaside or the mountains for hiking. Best of all, I love to be with my family.