Your Next Phone Will Toggle Between Cell Towers and Satellites Without You Noticing. The Engineers Who Can Build That Link Are Earning Premiums from San Jose to Singapore.
The Direct-to-Device Play That's Reshaping Satellite Connectivity
In January 2025, Skylo announced it had unlocked satellite connectivity potential for more than a billion devices, calling itself the world's largest commercial standards-based direct-to-device network. The company's network was already operating across five continents, built on a 3GPP standards-based architecture that lets standard smartphones and IoT devices toggle between cellular and satellite without specialized hardware.
Skylo runs on existing geostationary satellite assets through its partnership with Viasat, avoiding the capital expense of building a new orbital constellation. As Space Intel Report noted in February 2024, Viasat characterized its direct-to-device service with Skylo and Ligado as a "market discovery" phase requiring no Viasat capital expenditure. The company's ground-side technology is a cloud-native non-terrestrial network (NTN) vRAN system, a base station and core network built to 3GPP Release 17 standards that bridges terrestrial and satellite spectrum.
Skylo raised $37 million in February 2024 in a round co-led by Intel Capital and Innovation Endeavors, with BMW i Ventures, Samsung Catalyst Fund, Seraphim Space, and Next47 participating, as reported by CNBC. In February 2025, the company raised another $30 million in an oversubscribed round led by NGP Capital, with participation from Westly Group, Intel Capital, and the same two investors plus Next47, bringing total funding to $183 million. Skylo said the new capital would fuel expansion into Brazil, Australia, and New Zealand while extending US coverage to Alaska, Hawaii, and territories.
The partner ecosystem spans the telecom and semiconductor industries. Qualcomm's Snapdragon X80 5G Modem-RF System and Snapdragon W5+ Gen 2 wearable platform support Skylo's NTN service. Samsung's Exynos Modem 5400 and Exynos 2500 chipsets are certified. Sony's Altair ALT1250 NB-IoT chipset is certified. On the module side, Murata's Type 1SC-NTN module, the first ultra-compact resin mold module to earn Skylo FCC and CE L-band certification, has become a reference design for dual-mode cellular-satellite IoT devices. Semtech's HL78 LPWA modules, u-blox's SARA-S528NM10, and Compal's RMM-T1 module all carry Skylo certification.
Carrier adoption is broad. Verizon launched satellite texting to any device using select Android smartphones (Samsung Galaxy S25 and Google Pixel 9 series) powered by Skylo. Charter and Comcast rolled out satellite connectivity for Spectrum Mobile and Xfinity Mobile customers. Deutsche Telekom completed Europe's first direct-to-handset SMS over GEO satellite to a commercial smartphone. Orange became the first European operator to offer satellite SMS service, initially for Pixel 9 and 10 owners. KPN, Tele2, Vodafone IoT, and o2 Telefónica have all launched or trialed services.
On the IoT side, Tele2 IoT became the first Swedish operator to offer a commercial 3GPP-based direct-to-device satellite IoT solution. Soracom made its integrated satellite IoT connectivity solution generally available across North America, Europe, Latin America, and Oceania. Nordic Semiconductor partnered with Skylo to bring ultra-low power satellite connectivity to massive IoT deployments. Blues launched Starnote, a satellite data connectivity product with no monthly usage fees. Particle unlocked satellite access for IoT developers. The Digitanimal SAT Collar for livestock tracking earned Skylo certification, and the 701x xTpro tag does the same for cattle management.
Skylo's certification program has become an industry gate. Keysight has 145 approved test cases for NTN chipset, module, and device certification. Rohde & Schwarz validated its NTN Netop test solutions under the program. SGS partnered with Skylo for global certification testing out of facilities in San Diego, Taiwan, and China.
Mindel De La Torre, former chief of the FCC's International Bureau, joined Skylo as head of regulatory affairs in July 2024. Tami Erwin, former CEO of Verizon Business, joined Skylo's board of directors in March 2024.
Fast Company named Skylo to its Most Innovative Companies list in both 2025 and 2026, ranking No. 8 in the space category the second year. The company won the GLOMO Award for Best Non-Terrestrial Network Solution at MWC 2024, then won again at GLOMO 2026 alongside Garmin and Sony Altair for the Garmin fēnix 8 Pro smartwatch. It took home honors at the GSMA Foundry Excellence Awards 2026, the IoT Breakthrough Awards 2026, and the Global Space Awards 2025. Via Satellite named it one of the 10 Hottest Satellite Companies in 2024.
In May 2026, Skylo partnered with Space 42 to provide standards-based D2D connectivity through the Thuraya-4 geostationary satellite, extending Skylo's reach into regions served by Thuraya's coverage footprint across the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and parts of Asia.
From Pixel 10 to IoT Modules: The OEM Deals Driving Demand
The Pixel 9's satellite SOS feature, powered by Skylo, won "Best Smartphone" at the Global Mobile Awards during MWC Barcelona 2025. A year later, Google expanded the partnership: the Pixel 10 series launched in August 2025 with satellite-based location sharing baked into Android 16, and the Pixel Watch 4 became the first smartwatch with standalone two-way satellite emergency messaging — no phone or cellular plan required. The watch runs on Qualcomm's Snapdragon W5 Gen 2, the first wearable platform with NB-NTN support.
"This launch isn't just a new feature. It redefines what's possible with satellite connectivity in everyday devices, including the one that's in your pocket or on your wrist," said Parthsarathi Trivedi, Skylo's CEO and co-founder.
Sony Semiconductor Israel's Altair ALT1250 chipset received Skylo certification in May 2024, enabling dual-mode cellular and satellite connectivity without manual switching. Semtech followed with its HL781x LPWA modules sampling Skylo connectivity, and by October 2025 had launched what it called the industry's first single-vendor device-to-cloud cellular and satellite IoT solution using Skylo-certified HL78 modules. Murata's module became a reference design that other OEMs build around.
Module-level integration requires RF engineering talent. Companies like Compal (RMM-T1 module, Skylo-certified September 2024), u-blox (SARA-S528NM10, September 2024), and Nordic Semiconductor (partnership announced February 2025 for ultra-low power satellite IoT) all need engineers who can design, test, and certify hardware that toggles between terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks.
On the software and platform side, Blues partnered with Skylo to launch Starnote. Soracom announced general availability of its integrated satellite IoT solution with Skylo in October 2025. Particle opened satellite connectivity access to its IoT developer base. Vodafone IoT and Skylo began trialing a global hybrid connectivity service using a single SIM in January 2026.
The Viasat partnership gave Skylo access to Viasat's geostationary L-band satellite constellation and licensed spectrum through Inmarsat, enabling a global direct-to-device network rather than a regional one.
Where Skylo's Talent War Is Actually Happening
Skylo's careers page lists more than 30 open roles as of early 2026. The heaviest concentration is in Bangalore, India, where Skylo is hiring across cloud infrastructure, full-stack software, backend engineering, RAN intelligent controllers, and BSS solution design. Mountain View, California, the company's headquarters, accounts for a smaller but critical cluster: RF payload engineering, space mission architecture, cloud networking, and system test leadership. Espoo, Finland, rounds out the trio with roles focused on NR-NTN protocol stacks, network planning, and wireless systems engineering.
That three-hub structure maps directly to the technical stack Skylo is building. Mountain View houses the satellite communications and RF payload work. Bangalore runs the cloud platform and network intelligence layer. Espoo handles the 3GPP NR-NTN protocol integration.
The company's careers page states the global team at over 60 members across three regional offices, with 20% annual employee growth. LinkedIn shows roughly 167 employees. Zero G Talent's board data confirms the pace: four Skylo roles were added in the past week alone, spanning IT management in Mountain View and senior engineering positions in Bangalore.
The February 2026 partnership with GCT Semiconductor, a San Jose-based chipmaker, to accelerate satellite connectivity for cellular IoT devices is generating demand on the semiconductor side. Joint chip and module certification efforts between the two companies require RF IC designers, systems validation engineers, and embedded firmware developers. LinkedIn lists over 40 open senior RF engineer positions in satellite engineering across the US, and Indeed shows nearly 3,000 RF semiconductor engineer roles nationwide. The RFIC H1 2025 Talent Report from OHO US points to IoT proliferation and space-based infrastructure as the two strongest hiring drivers for RF talent through the year.
Skylo's open roles skew toward staff, principal, and director-level positions. Principal RF Payload Lead Engineer. Director, RAN Intelligent Controller. Staff Wireless Systems Engineer. These are roles that require deep domain expertise in satellite communications or cellular protocol stacks.
Why RF and Embedded-Systems Engineers Are the New Hot Commodity
Getting a signal from a satellite to a phone designed to talk to a cell tower 300 meters away requires solving a chain of hard engineering problems. Skylo's network depends on RF front-end architectures that can handle the path loss, Doppler shift, and latency profile of a satellite link while fitting inside a handset or IoT module with no external antenna.
The core demand sits at three intersections. First, RF front-end design — engineers who can architect the signal chain from antenna to modem for NTN bands, particularly in the S-band and L-band frequencies Skylo uses. Second, beamforming and antenna integration — maintaining a usable link with a satellite using antenna arrays that fit in a phone chassis. Third, embedded firmware for satellite modems — the protocol stack that manages handshakes, timing advances, and retransmissions over a link with round-trip delays measured in hundreds of milliseconds.
Most RF engineers in the US and Europe have spent their careers on terrestrial 5G, Wi-Fi, or Bluetooth. The NTN-specific knowledge base is concentrated in a handful of satellite operators, defense contractors, and chipmakers (Qualcomm, MediaTek, and Sony Semiconductor Solutions among them).
Zero G Talent's board reflects the pattern: Skylo's open roles include infrastructure and software positions in Bangalore, while the broader ecosystem's demand is concentrated in RF and test engineering, roles that Lynk Global is also hiring for in Chantilly, Virginia, including RF Systems Test Engineer and RF Systems Technical Project Manager.
NTN modem development is concentrated in Asia, with MediaTek in Taiwan, Sony Semiconductor in Japan, and a growing base of RF design talent in India's Bangalore corridor. Chip validation and handset integration work happens in parallel across Silicon Valley, Seoul, and Taipei.
Talent Wars From Silicon Valley to Singapore
Skylo's hiring follows its partner network across multiple continents. Zero G Talent's board shows Skylo added four roles in the past week alone: two in Mountain View, two in Bangalore (a Senior Software Engineer and a Director for RAN Intelligent Controller development), and a Program Manager for wholesale roaming coordination in Espoo, Finland.
The Space42 partnership extends this further. Space42, the Abu Dhabi-based satellite company backed by G42, Mubadala, and IHC, tapped Skylo to power standards-based direct-to-device connectivity through its Thuraya-4 geostationary satellite. Thuraya-4 covers those same four regions from its slot at 44°E. That footprint means carrier integration work happens in markets where terrestrial networks still have gaps, and where hiring RF and embedded engineers locally makes sense.
Skylo's model depends on partnerships with existing satellite operators and chip vendors rather than launching its own constellation. Every new operator deal creates integration work: modem firmware, beamforming calibration, carrier-grade NTN testing. That work lands wherever the partner's engineering teams sit.
The Bangalore cluster is the clearest example. Skylo's India office is hiring across software, RAN, and cloud infrastructure, roles that support the same satellite-to-phone stack being deployed through Pixel devices and IoT modules globally.
The talent war for these skills is already global. Zero G Talent tracks 9,875 open space roles across 936 companies. The question is which companies realize it first.
Working in space? Zero G Talent tracks the openings: browse space jobs, openings at Skylo and Lynk, and the people building the field.
