While studying Media Production at university in Farnborough, Rob worked on Farnborough Airshow Radio and helped run a live radio station as part of his degree… reading news bulletins as well as presenting his own daily show.
It was an early taste of the combination of technology, people and problem-solving that has continued throughout his career.
Before joining SSTL, Rob worked in IT support and customer service for Classic Race Simulators, travelling to major events including Silverstone and Salon Privé. He joined SSTL as a Technical Support Analyst in February 2022.
Since then, his work has touched almost every part of life at SSTL. He has delivered our Family Meetings and Staff Updates, supported a major HydroGNSS mission webinar, helped test applications ahead of the move to Windows 11 and prepared IT equipment for colleagues travelling on satellite launch campaigns.
“No two days are the same,” says Rob. “One day I might be preparing equipment for a launch campaign and the next I’m testing a new IT system we’re rolling out.”
That variety is a big part of what he enjoys - along with the challenge of working out why something isn’t doing what it should.
“I really enjoy problem-solving and a good puzzle. It’s like being a detective… but with computers.”
Much of Rob’s work happens behind the scenes, which is true of many of the support roles across SSTL. But these are the people who keep the company connected, equipped and able to get on with the job… whether that means running an all-staff event, supporting a customer webinar or making sure a launch team has what it needs thousands of miles from Guildford.
Space missions may be what people see at the end of the process. They depend on a great many people making everything around them work properly.
For Rob, the ambition is straightforward: to keep building his technical knowledge, get involved with new projects and technologies - and, in his words, “keep all the gears turning as smoothly as possible.”