Case study 05 / Satellite ground segment · IoT · Real-time

The control surface for a satellite operator’s ground estate

Started as a backend-to-IoT contract engineer and grew into leading the six-senior team building the complex internal, client-facing operations dashboard: the web interface through which the entire ground and device technology estate is monitored and controlled. Integrated all device controls end-to-end, from backend services to IoT-connected ground hardware, with real-time telemetry, alarms, service provisioning, traffic shaping and capacity management for network operators.

Client
Eutelsat Group
Program
Operations dashboard for the ground and device technology estate
Period
2024 – 2025 · Contract
Employer
Eutelsat (contract, overlapping Tanbits)
Role
Backend/IoT engineer → Web Dashboard Backend Team Lead
Team
6 senior engineers
Where
Paris, France

World’s first integrated GEO-LEO operator · Paris · Euronext + LSE

650+OneWeb LEO satellites
341geostationary satellites
6,500TV channels through the fleet
40+ground station sites
6senior engineers led

The chapter: orbit

Eutelsat became the world’s first integrated GEO-LEO satellite operator after merging with OneWeb in September 2023: 341 geostationary satellites carrying some 6,500 TV channels, plus a low-Earth-orbit constellation of 650+ satellites at around 1,200 km, and 40+ ground station sites worldwide. Europe’s Starlink, notably used in Ukraine.

I joined on contract as a backend-to-IoT engineer and grew into leading the web dashboard backend team of six senior engineers. We built the complex internal, client-facing operations dashboard through which the entire ground and device estate is monitored and controlled, and integrated all device controls end-to-end: backend services to IoT-connected ground hardware. Real-time telemetry, alarms, service provisioning, traffic shaping, capacity management, for network operators.

It meant talking with everyone across a much larger satellite and devices engineering organization to align APIs, protocols and operational semantics, and working inside DVB and satellite transport constraints: IP encapsulation into MPEG-TS, multicast delivery, real-time performance, broadcast-grade availability.

The ground segment is the unsung half of a satellite network.

The stakes. In January 2025 a two-day OneWeb outage was caused by a ground-segment software leap-year bug. Operator-grade monitoring and control software is what keeps a constellation usable. Very few full-stack engineers have worked at that grade.

The operator

Eutelsat Group became the world’s first integrated GEO-LEO satellite operator when its all-share merger with OneWeb completed on 28 September 2023. The fleet, per the May 2025 investor deck: 341 geostationary satellites carrying roughly 1,200 transponders, some 6,500 TV channels and 690+ Gbps of high-throughput capacity, plus the OneWeb low-Earth-orbit constellation of 650+ satellites at about 1,200 km. Revenue around €1.24B for FY2025/26. The French and UK governments are shareholders. In 2025 the group raised about €1.5B and ordered 340 more OneWeb satellites from Airbus. It is positioned as Europe’s Starlink, notably in Ukraine.

Underneath all of that is the ground segment: 40+ ground station sites, the Satellite Network Portals, and the device estate that makes the constellation usable.

The engagement

This was a contract engagement in 2024 and 2025, overlapping my Tech Lead role at Tanbits. I started as a backend-to-IoT engineer. I grew into leading the web dashboard backend team of six senior engineers.

We built the complex internal, client-facing operations dashboard: the web interface through which the entire ground and device technology estate is monitored and controlled. That meant integrating all controls of the devices involved, end-to-end, from backend services down to IoT-connected ground hardware, and exposing real-time telemetry, alarms, service provisioning, traffic shaping and capacity management to network operators.

Working inside a satellite organization

A dashboard team does not work alone in a company like this. I talked with everyone across the much larger satellite and devices engineering organization to align APIs, protocols and operational semantics. The vocabulary of the domain became daily language: IP encapsulation into MPEG-TS streams, DVB-based transport, hybrid satellite and terrestrial distribution, multicast delivery, datacasting and media distribution pipelines. Some of the collaboration reached into C-based low-level work, protocol handling, stream processing, packet buffering and state-driven control logic.

The constraints were operator-grade: real-time performance, high availability, broadcast-grade operational standards. I also supported a critical engineering transition by transferring system knowledge to new engineers.

Why this matters

In January 2025 a two-day OneWeb outage was caused by a ground-segment software leap-year bug. That is the clearest possible proof of why operator-grade ground monitoring and control software matters: the satellites were fine, the ground software was not, and the service went dark. Very few full-stack engineers have worked at that standard on a live constellation’s control surface. The contract ended in 2025.