Space Jobs and Career Boards

Oddly enough, most Canadian graduate students interested in working in the space systems industry are likely going to end up working in either Europe or the United States for a few years until they've built up enough experience for Canadian organizations to be interested.

Here are a few useful places to begin the job search:

• Astronauts4Hire -A US based, 501(c)(3) non-profit formed in 2010 to recruit and train qualified scientists and engineers for the rigors of spaceflight

• The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) Career Page - Interesting background on CSA hiring policies and procedures.

• The European Space Agency (ESA) Career Page -Vacancies and useful career facts.

• Jobs in Space - The global space industry forum for posting vacancy notices and resumes.

• NASA Jobs - A public listing of available National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) openings.

• R4Space site - British based site focused on engineering careers for the growing aerospace defense security and space systems industry.

• Space Careers - French based, English language site focused on "the top jobs and the best talents in the industry." Contains a jobs center (where job hunters and recruiters register), a space industry directory and a news and resource section with space news RSS feeds.

• The Space Job Center - Czech Republic based employment service focused on the space industry founded in 2010 by "a group of professionals from different industries that transitioned to the space sector." Site is currently free but this notice indicates that the site owners will begin charging users once a "certain level" of daily traffic is reached.

• The Wikipedia listing of government agencies engaged in space exploration - Categorized according to capabilities and including links to the listed agency's primary website. One stop shopping for those inclined towards government service. 

• The Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) open positions page -  The company that built the worlds first commercial spacecraft has dozens of job openings requiring a wide range of expertise.

It's also worth noting that the Canadian Auto Workers, Canada's largest private sector union, represents aerospace employees at Boeing Canada (Local 2169), Bombardier/ de Havilland (Local 112), Cascade Aerospace (Local 114), CMC Electronics, Magellan Aerospace/ Bristol (Local 3005) and Pratt and Whitney Canada (Local 510). Worth contacting to learn a little more about the range of opportunities available.

It's not rocket science, but it's close.