Edge Compute Engineer

<div class="content-intro"><p>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.</p></div><p><strong>Position Overview</strong></p> <p>We are seeking a Edge Compute Engineer to join the Latvia Design Center as the primary owner of our ground-segment compute and storage stack running the edge workloads running across all AST ground gateway stations. The Edge Compute Engineer owns the design, provisioning, and lifecycle of this platform across the full gateway fleet globally.</p> <p>This is a design-and-operate role for a senior engineer who can define the edge compute reference architecture, build an IaC-driven fleet management stack, and take hands-on operational ownership. As the fleet scales, this role will also shape the edge compute platform for future edge functions beyond the current scope.</p> <p><strong>Key Responsibilities:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Define and own the edge compute reference architecture: virtualization platform (VMware-based virtualization or Kubernetes), VM/container topology, storage layout, virtual networking, and resource governance across the gateway fleet</li> <li>Design the platform to support confirmed edge workloads with headroom and architectural provision for deployment of future edge workloads</li> <li>Maintain architecture documentation, platform design records, and operational runbooks</li> <li>Build and maintain Terraform-based provisioning pipelines and PXE/TFTP-based boot and instance management for consistent, repeatable gateway node deployment</li> <li>Implement Ansible-based configuration management and GitOps workflows to enforce auditable configuration state across all hypervisor nodes remotely</li> <li>Manage virtualization cluster operations (VMware-based virtualization or Kubernetes): VM/pod lifecycle, HA, storage pools, virtual networking, and patching automation</li> <li>Maintain platform-level observability integrated into the central Prometheus/Grafana/VictoriaMetrics stack and support capacity planning as the fleet expands</li> <li>Enforce OS hardening baselines, PKI/certificate lifecycle (IAM Roles Anywhere, mTLS), encrypted storage, and firewall rules aligned with AST’s security governance</li> <li>Coordinate with on-site teams or vendors for server firmware, BIOS, and RAID configuration as needed; maintain accurate hardware and software inventory across the fleet</li> </ul> <p><strong>Qualifications</strong></p> <p><strong>Education:</strong></p> <p>Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Telecommunications Engineering, or a related field — or equivalent professional experience.</p> <p><strong>Experience:</strong></p> <p>A minimum of 5 to 8 years of hands-on experience in infrastructure or platform engineering, with a strong focus on hypervisor administration, Linux systems, and infrastructure-as-code. Demonstrated experience designing and operating distributed or edge compute environments.</p> <ul> <li>Deep hands-on VMware-based virtualization or Kubernetes (K8s) — cluster management, HA/DRS, virtual networking, storage pools</li> <li>Advanced administration (RHEL, Ubuntu, Debian) — systemd, network stack tuning, performance profiling, security hardening</li> <li>Terraform for infrastructure provisioning; PXE/TFTP-