Building Australia’s space workforce

Building the workforce behind Australia’s space capability

Behind every satellite, launch facility, mission, and emerging technology, is another capability Australia needs to build: the people who will make it work.

As Australia’s space sector moves from ambition towards operational capability, that challenge was part of a much broader conversation at the Australian Space Summit & Exhibition in Sydney, where leaders from government, Defence, industry, research, and academia came together to examine Australia’s place in the global space economy and the capability needed to support it.

Gunggandji Aerospace’s Founder & Managing Director, Daniel Joinbee, was invited to share his perspective as part of the Workforce and Talent Pipelines for Space Growth panel discussion, where he spoke about lowering barriers to entry, recognising transferable skills, and ensuring aspiration is connected to real jobs and capability requirements.

 Rethinking the space workforce

Across the discussion, a common theme emerged. Building Australia’s future space workforce will require more than attracting young people into STEM. It requires a clearer understanding of the capability the sector needs, clearer pathways into industry, greater movement between sectors, and support for people to build and apply their skills throughout their careers.

Space Industry Association of Australia Head of Policy and Workforce Zamara Rodriguez described it as a pathways challenge. Students are interested in space, but often lack a clear understanding of how their existing skills can translate into a career in the sector.

Dr Catherine Robinson extended that challenge across the workforce lifecycle. Building interest through schools and universities matters, but without a strong Australian industry able to employ and retain that talent, skilled people will continue to look overseas for opportunities.

For Professor Kate Kitagawa, that also means moving away from the idea of a space career as a single destination. She described careers more as “revolving doors”, with people bringing skills and experience into the sector from other industries, moving between roles, and continuing to build capability throughout their careers.

Lowering the barriers to entry

For Daniel, creating those pathways starts with making it easier for people to take the first step and then deliberately building capability from there.

“Aspiration needs to be nurtured, and then it needs to connect to actual jobs,” Daniel said.

Gunggandji Aerospace is applying that thinking through its work with Toll Aviation in South Australia, where a low barrier entry pathway into aviation is being designed around what someone needs to be able to do on day one, rather than everything they will eventually need to know.

That could be as simple as printing and preparing weather information. With structured exposure, supervision and experience, that person can progressively build the capability to brief weather, understand airspace, interpret freezing levels and work with operational requirements supporting complex aviation operations.

While the example comes from aviation, the principle is directly relevant to the workforce challenge facing space. Practical entry points can create opportunities for people to develop capability over time, rather than requiring them to arrive with every skill already in place.

Mapping the capability Australia need

Building the workforce also requires a clearer understanding of the capability Australia actually needs and where the skills to support it may already exist.

Space capability extends well beyond engineers and scientists. It is supported by an ecosystem of skilled occupations including electricians, technicians, tradespeople, operators, logistics specialists, emergency services personnel, and people working across adjacent industries.

That creates opportunities not only for young people considering their future, but for experienced workers whose skills may already be transferable into space. One example Daniel shared during the panel was an Australian space company that hired bicycle mechanics to support satellite assembly because the role required precision, consistency, and repeatability.

“Capability can come from places we aren’t always looking. When workforce is a constraint, we need to think differently about how we identify the skills we need and where we find them,” Daniel said.

Mapping those requirements against the skills already available across Australia can help identify where capability exists, where the gaps remain, and where new pathways need to be built.

As Australia’s space sector continues to grow, building the workforce to support it will require the same focus as building the technology itself. That means creating aspiration, connecting it to real opportunities, and looking more broadly at the people and skills that can contribute to the capability Australia needs.