Michael Hicks

About Michael Hicks

GOAL: Play a critical role in the development of systems that:• Demonstrate new, revolutionary, and enabling approaches to space or the use of space• Expand human scientific understanding of the universe• Expand human presence and activity in spaceAPPROACH: • Purposefully develop an extremely broad technical base and experience in a variety of industry roles. Use every opportunity to expand my knowledge base, develop the ability to communicate effectively inside and outside my depth areas, and actively seek opportunities to leverage this background.• Utilize breadth and cross-disciplinary understanding to produce unique system level insights and connections, leading to rapid understanding of key trades, constraints, and opportunities in complex systems. • Work with minimal supervision to produce the most effective project outcome within the technical, budgetary, and schedule resources available to the organization, including- Coordinating subject matter expert activity on multi-disciplinary problems- Consulting and incorporating SME knowledge into my own efforts- Drawing on technical base to rapidly gain competency in new technical areas as necessary to solve challenging problemsEXPERIENCE: 20+ years experience with space systems, 15+ years professional employment working space systems design, analysis, R&D, and new business pursuits spanning a spectrum of technologies and mission areas. Organizationally recognized performance across aerospace roles including analysis, design, technical PI for IRAD and CRAD, capture/proposal/program management of <$1M advanced technology efforts.SPECIALTIES: Space systems design, spacecraft configuration and structure, development of new space technologies across subsystems, multi-disciplinary problem solving, dynamic communication link modeling and visualization, development of Matlab tools for analysis, modeling, and visualization, small satellite domain knowledge, leadership of small teams

Experience

1. Principal Comms Systems Engineer

   Amazon

   Jul 2019 — Present · Redmond, WA, US

   Modeling and simulation of constellation level communications performance to enable system level analysis and trades on HW design, resource allocation, and requirements, as well as regulatory analysis. Leveraging broad space systems background for cross-disciplinary work, including: multi-shell constellation design and optimization for coverage, deployment order, cross-link connectivity, coverage and capacity prediction modeling against customer demand cases, dynamic topology design, algorithms for end-to-end connectivity and resource allocation within payload and satellite capability constraints, ground gateway siting, compatibility with co-frequency users, etc.Modeling work informs major trades and program-level planning. Work with HW teams on satellite and payload design trades, SW teams on operational implementation of resource planning, business team on inputs for costing alternative strategies or business decisions, technical program management team on program execution decisions. I scale my effect by training and mentoring new talent, document extensively to make analyses, tools, and conclusions transparent and accessible, author clear and concise documents to inform leadership decisions, and serve as a resource for system-level information, often helping teams discover important issues or inter-dependencies with other teams.Join us at

Education

• Harvey Mudd College

  BS, Engineering

  1990 — 1994

• Stanford University

  MS, Aero/Astro Engineering

  1994 — 1995

• Stanford University

  PhD, Aero/Astro Engineering

  1995 — 2001

Skills

• R&D
• U.s. Department of Defense
• Interdisciplinary Research
• Space Systems
• Solid Modeling
• Simulations
• Spacecraft
• New Business Development
• Distributed Antenna Systems
• Space Technology
• Composites
• Matlab
• Structures
• Dod
• Sci Clearance
• Engineering
• Orbital Mechanics
• Aerospace
• Satellite
• Engineering Management
• Sensors
• Smallsats
• Proposal Writing
• Systems Engineering
• Systems Design
• Systems Analysis
• Link Analysis
• System Design
• Spectrum Regulatory
• Rf Comm Analysis
• Program Management
• Antennas
• System Architecture