Company Description: Qwaltec is an Arizona-based engineering company specializing in space mission operations, ground systems, and training. We design and support mission control software, operations concepts, and readiness activities for civil, commercial, and defense space programs. Our work focuses on operator-centered tools, simulation, and workforce development that prepare teams to plan, fly, and sustain complex spacecraft missions.
Primary Responsibilities/ Focus Areas of Internship: The intern will design and prototype a Spacecraft Operations AI Copilot that helps satellite operators turn plain-language questions and requests into source-cited answers and candidate products/actions. The intern will work at the intersection of software engineering and space operations: translating simple spacecraft operations scenarios into structured software artifacts and integrating an AI “brain” service into a small prototype mission-operations tool. The intern may have time to work on complimentary areas—such as backend/AI integration, front-end user experience, and operations/domain modeling.
Day-to-day work will include understanding how operators express intent (for example, configuring a thruster burn or monitoring key telemetry), designing how the copilot should respond, and implementing the pieces that turn that intent into structured response for human review. The project is primarily a software-development effort with strong exposure to modern ground-systems concepts, AI/LLM integration, and practical spacecraft-operations workflows, including collaboration practices used on real engineering teams.
Key Tasks/Projects the intern may be involved with:
- Domain mapping and requirements definition:
- As a team, select and document a small set of example satellite operations (e.g., thruster configuration, heater control, basic telemetry pages) and express them as simple command and telemetry definitions (for example, JSON or YAML).
- Collect and utilize realistic space mission documentation (design documents, operational procedures, etc.).
- Learn how mission operations concepts (commands, limits, telemetry points) are represented in real ground systems.
- Knowledge Management & Storage:
- Architect a document storage solution that allows for efficient searching, querying, and retrieval (e.g., Vector databases, NoSQL databases, data lakes)
- Develop an ingestion pipeline that prepares documents (chunking, summarization, enrichment) for storage and copilot operations
Interaction design and AI “brain” contract - Define the interaction flow for the copilot: what an operator can ask, what the system returns, and how the operator can refine or approve results.
- Design structured request/response schemas for an internal AI brain service, specifying required inputs and the structured outputs (commands, telemetry items, status, clarification questions) it must produce.
Backend and AI integration - Implement a lightweight backend service (e.g., in Python/FastAPI or JavaScript/TypeScript) that calls a large language model (LLM) via API through a single abstraction layer.
- Parse the AI response into the agreed schema and apply basic vali
Required Skills & Level:
- Strong programming ability in at least one modern language (Python or JavaScript/TypeScript preferred) – Intermediate
- Comfort working with structured data formats such as JSON and basic data structures – Beginner to Intermediate
- Familiarity with fundamental software-development practices, including using Git or other version control, running and debugging code, and writing simple tests – Beginner to Intermediate
- Clear written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to document work, write short design notes, and discuss trade-offs in team meetings – Intermediate.
- Willingness to learn basic space-operations concepts (commands, telemetry, simple safety rules) with support from Qwaltec staff – Beginner; no prior experience required.
Desirable Skills & Level:
• Experience building simple web user interfaces (e.g., React, Vue, or similar) – Beginner to Intermediate
• Prior exposure to backend frameworks or web APIs (HTTP/REST, FastAPI, Flask, Express, etc.) – Beginner to Intermediate
• Interest in or prior exposure to AI/LLMs (for example, using an AI coding assistant, experimenting with API calls, or taking an introductory ML/AI course) – Beginner
• Familiarity with Linux or command-line development environments – Beginner
• Interest in space, spacecraft operations, or related fields such as aerospace engineering, systems engineering, or computer engineering – Any level
Position Requires: Background Check
Additional qualifications or requirements for the intern that have not been noted above?
- Preferred: rising juniors or seniors (or equivalent) in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related technical disciplines.
- Comfortable working semi-independently, coordinating tasks, and iterating on feedback from mentors.
Work Location & Hours: Flexible; to be coordinated between the intern and mentor. We anticipate a part-time schedule during the semester with regular weekly team check-ins, but we are open to aligning exact hours with the students’ course loads and program requirements.