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Inside the role: how two AWS solutions architects landed their moonshot roles at AWS

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 May 15, 2024

Jay Naves

In the predawn hours one night in April 2022, Jay Naves, a senior solutions architect at Amazon Web Services (AWS), sat feverishly inputting commands into a desktop computer in his Huntsville, Alabama home. On the other end of the digital link: Astronaut Michael López-Alegría, commander of Axiom Space’s Axiom Mission 1 (Ax-1), on the first private astronaut mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

López-Alegría had just helped power-on an AWS Snowcone, a shoebox-sized edge computing device on the ISS utilized for demonstrations of space-based data processing capabilities. It was a surreal moment for Naves. He’d been working for more than seven months to get that tiny box approved for use in space, putting it through grueling vibration, shock, flammability, electromagnetic, and other tests. So, he was fulfilled and a little relieved to see the tiny device go live.

Then, as he took a little breather, the sheer magnitude of the moment hit him.

“I’m sitting there with the kids asleep in the next room, and it suddenly occurs to me that I’m managing something on the International Space Station from my home office,” recalled Naves, a former systems architect from General Dynamics who grew up watching his father go off to work at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. “A lot of AWS solutions architects have had the good fortune of collaborating with cool customers like Axiom Space, but I never imagined I’d have the privilege to work on a project where I’d be helping a customer do edge computing and run a computer in space.”

That’s the kind of opportunity employees in the AWS Aerospace and Satellite division have been enjoying for some time now. They’ve been pushing the boundaries of possibilities in cloud computing with innovations that go, well, way beyond the clouds.

“Not a lot of other companies give you access to the incredible amount of technology that AWS has,” Naves said. “If a customer's interested in doing something that seems crazy, you get to think big. You can proof-of-concept the idea, build it out in their environment, and prove to the customer that this crazy idea actually works—and it often ends up being something awesome."

Jay Naves
Senior Solutions Architect, AWS Aerospace and Satellite

A man wearing a blue blazer is standing in front of a large window in a laboratory. Behind the window, a spacecraft with visible wiring and equipment is displayed on a yellow platform. The setting appears to be a clean, high-tech lab environment related to space or aerospace engineering.

AWS in space

Solutions architects in the Aerospace and Satellite division design, test, and help implement AWS services and solutions for space exploration, supporting customers like NASA, the U.S. military, and numerous commercial companies.

Since the division's inception in 2020, solutions architects have worked with LiveEO, the German aerospace company, to help Germany’s national railway company Deutsche Bahn process raw satellite data that keeps its railway operations running safely, smoothly, and sustainably through Bavarian forests.

They’ve similarly helped Singapore’s Kacific Broadband Satellites deliver satellite-based, high-speed internet access to rural communities in the Philippines. And they are working with Axiom Space operationalizing in-space data processing and cybersecurity solutions for Axiom Station, the world’s first commercial space station.

Like outer space itself, the opportunities to help space programs use data more efficiently and effectively seem infinite, which is one of the things that drew Joy Fasnacht from a role as a solutions architect manager in AWS’s commercial enterprise business to AWS’s Aerospace & Satellite business unit in 2022.

Fasnacht, now an AWS principal solutions architect, was a longtime engineer at Ball Aerospace in the Midwest where she helped government customers implement best practices around web capabilities and data persistence. As cloud computing emerged, AWS naturally caught her eye. And when the Aerospace and Satellite business formed, she had to be a part of it.

Initially, she wasn’t expecting to land the AWS solutions architect role that she applied for in 2017. She felt she was chasing a dream for which she wasn’t sure she was fully qualified, but didn’t let that stop her from pursuing it. To her “rather great shock,” the company hired her.

Since joining AWS as a solutions architect and then moving into a manager role, Fasnacht now feels she’s gone back to her roots in the Aerospace and Satellite organization. She said she’s had to pinch herself over the incredible customers she’s advised and the innovative projects she’s worked on.

“There's not a day that goes by that I don't get very enthused about getting to work with this really interesting set of customers,” she said. “I feel like I've had the good fortune of being able to mold a career here that has taught me more in the last six years than I learned in the prior 20.”

Joy Fasnacht
Principal Solutions Architect, AWS Aerospace and Satellite

A person stands at an AWS Aerospace and Satellite booth featuring a cloud lake house architecture demo for geospatial data, with a large monitor displaying geospatial information.

“Not a lot of other companies give you access to the incredible amount of technology that AWS has. If a customer's interested in doing something that seems crazy, you get to think big. You can proof-of-concept the idea, build it out in their environment, and prove to the customer that this crazy idea actually works—and it often ends up being something awesome."

Jay Naves

Senior Solutions Architect, AWS Aerospace and Satellite

Leveraging the cloud to reinvent space missions

While working with aerospace and satellite customers is immensely exciting, it also comes with unique challenges that the AWS team is well-equipped to tackle.

"We understand how difficult it is to get things into space and to get data down from space, but we also understand the cloud," Fasnacht said. “By combining this deep knowledge of both domains, we can educate and inspire our customers to use cloud technologies to reinvent how they’re executing space missions."

Leveraging cloud capabilities such as automated CI/CD (continuous integration and continuous deployment) pipelines and seamless software rollouts, the aerospace and satellite team at AWS aims to shrink the operational difficulties their space industry customers have traditionally faced. Their expertise allows them to unlock new possibilities through cloud innovation that deliver faster value for customers.

“You know, one of the really cool things about working on the dedicated industry teams at AWS is that we get to channel our skills and passions into projects that can truly make a difference in the world," she said. "And with AWS having so many diverse industry verticals, we can pursue that sense of purpose while still playing a role, even indirectly, in tackling global challenges.”

                                                               

“You know, one of the really cool things about working on the dedicated industry teams at AWS is that we get to channel our skills and passions into projects that can truly make a difference in the world. And with AWS having so many diverse industry verticals, we can pursue that sense of purpose while still playing a role, even indirectly, in tackling global challenges.”

Joy Fasnacht

Principal Solutions Architect, AWS Aerospace and Satellite

Freedom to innovate and advance

Fasnacht and Naves added that, beyond the intellectual rewards, they’re equally grateful for the autonomy and career-advancement opportunities they’ve had since joining the AWS Aerospace and Satellite team.

“We have a lot of flexibility, and nobody is really standing over you insisting that you do things a certain way,” Naves said. “As long as you maintain an eye toward security and are working backwards from customer needs, you’ll have a lot of freedom to do things the way you think you should.”

Fasnacht said Aerospace and Satellite team members also have the autonomy to craft or look into alternate jobs within AWS that may be of interest to them.

“If you come here, you’ll have a huge set of opportunities to try different jobs, if you want to,” she said. “I’ve never met a manager here who was not 100 percent behind an employee trying to find a different role that fits their passion or skillset.”

The key to landing any technically oriented job at AWS, Fasnacht said, isn’t necessarily to have the exact skills found in the job description. She said if you can smartly represent a balance of desired qualities and experience, you’ll be in an outstanding position to take your “moonshot” at a role.

“For a solutions architect, it’s like a three-legged stool,” she said. “You want to demonstrate your breadth and depth of technical acumen. But you also need business acumen to show you’ll be able to hold conversations with customers and earn their trust. And you need to be team focused. The perfect candidate is a wonderful blend of those three things.”

                                           

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