The Craft Team

Managing Director

Steve is the founder and managing director of Craft Prospect. His own experience includes leadership of national space missions from proposal through to in-orbit operations, growing and developing engineering teams, establishing international partnerships for space development and mission lab facilities, and acting as project manager and design authority for space missions and systems. When not Crafting or Prospecting, his interests include work as a trustee for a local charity, scuba diving, skiing and playing games with his daughter.

Steve’s work has been recognised by a number of awards and fellowships over ten years in the space industry including Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851, Sir Frank Whittle award, and as a finalist of the Arthur C Clark space individual of the year.

Head of Operations

John understands what it takes to deliver successful missions. Working within the space and mobile communication industries for over 25 years, overseeing delivery of 10+ small satellite missions, he has developed an ability to lead multi-functional teams situated around the globe to deliver exceptional value to customers. In addition to building engineering and manufacturing teams, John has performed executive operational and non-executive director roles and helped deliver Scotland’s first satellite to space. His primary role at Craft Prospect is to oversee the delivery of the company’s transformational satellite missions and secure payloads.

John enjoys cycling, playing bass guitar and treating the neighbours to his piano playing.

Head of Autonomous Systems

Murray has a background in robotics, control and simulation, with a PhD in aerospace engineering and diverse postdoctoral experience. His primary role at Craft Prospect is in leading the development of satellite autonomy, fusing diverse areas including space systems, machine learning, remote sensing and robotics. Outside of the Craft Prospect imagination mine, Murray enjoys bouldering, woodworking, swimming, cycling, video games, convoluted home projects and retuning his guitar.

Head of  Systems

Hazel is an experienced systems engineer who has performed as the technical lead for the full systems lifecycle of various CubeSat missions. With an MEng in Aeronautical Engineering, she is a ‘jack of all trades’ engineer who has a broad background in space mission design, conceptual design and feasibility assessment. She also has hands on experience with the assembly and testing of CubeSats. Her role at Craft Prospect is to provide systems engineering support to ongoing CubeSat activities and to define the architecture for future Craft Prospect space based missions.

In her spare time she is interested in music and is currently learning guitar and piano with dreams of learning drums and violin. She is yet to come to terms with the fact that she has limited musical ability.

Quantum Technologies Lead

Craig is a quantum optics engineer with a PhD in atomic physics. He has experience cooling atoms optically to quantum degeneracy and working on cold atom apparatus with low size, weight, power consumption and cost parameters. He is currently working on optical design and construction of the JADE quantum source for use in various QKD missions. Outside of work, Craig enjoys hillwalking, playing poker, and juggling hobbies such as 3D animation, video game design and trying to find more hours in the day.

Systems Engineer

Colin is a Space Systems Engineer with a strong background in mission architecture and quantum technologies. Colin was the lead systems engineer for the ROKS project that developed and qualified a 6U CubeSat payload, combining quantum key distribution with responsive operations. Alongside this Colin has also supported the development of a variety of mission concepts and systems including: secure QKD networks, low SWaP entangled photon sources, space qualified QRNGs, optical communications, rendezvous proximity operations, and CubeSat sensing. In 2019 Colin was awarded 1st place at the phi week bootcamp with his team for their work in developing a solution for forest fire prevention using Earth observation data and AI.

Outside of work, Colin is an avid skateboarder who played a key role in the creation of Kirkintilloch Skate Park, just a few stops outside Glasgow. Colin was recently awarded Best Badminton player at Craft, beating his competition by miles. Fellow employee Ahren McTaggart was quoted saying "There is simply no way we can beat this guy!".

Principal Systems Engineer

Jason is a design engineer with an MSc in Electronic and Electrical systems and an MBA. Over the last 10 years he has worked on CubeSat programmes in Africa and Europe with an emphasis on systems engineering and electronic design for the space environment. His focus at Craft Prospect is around supporting technical excellence in product development and project delivery.

Outside of work he enjoys cooking, jiu-jitsu, exploring the Scottish Highlands, and building home electronics projects.

Embedded Software Engineer

Mikulas is involved in engineering new solutions for smart and secure aerospace systems, which requires overcoming many challenges. Miki is focused on bridging the gap between high-performance electronics, devices and algorithms which address on-board computing challenges at Craft Prospect. He received an MEng in Mechatronics from University of Glasgow, and before joining Craft Prospect he worked with swarm robotics, autonomous optical tracking, underground robotic locomotion, and even solar sensors in roasting and freezing African deserts!

Space Software Engineer

Craig is a systems engineer with an MEng in Electrical and Mechanical Engineering. He has a background in academic research, developing AI systems and IoT sensors for power transmission systems, and his space experience comes from leading systems engineering on the Unicorn-1 picosatellite. His skills in embedded electronics and software design are put to the test at Craft Prospect in the design and development of reliable hardware and software for flight systems.

AI Software Engineer

Lucy works to develop intelligent software applications for satellite applications. She has an MSc in Artificial Intelligence and Applications and specialises in applying machine learning for on-board feature detection and data processing for various Earth observation use cases. Lucy also volunteers as a student mentor, STEM ambassador and is passionate about promoting diversity in the space sector and beyond. Lucy has broad interests and a strong creative side, with a design degree from the Glasgow School of Art and a previous career history of working in the arts and museums. In her spare time she mostly likes to be out in nature and often enjoys trips around Scotland for walking, wildlife spotting and swimming.

Operations Manager

With 30 plus years of experience in business administration, David has loads of experience in what it’s like to work in a rapidly growing organisation. He can be found working away in the background making sure everything runs smoothly at Craft.

When he’s not chasing engineers for timesheets, he’ll probably be out on his bike or playing his bass.

Security, IT and Networks Lead

Graeme joined Craft Prospect after serving over 13 years in the Royal Air Force as an Intelligence Analyst. He has experience in both Imagery and Signals Intelligence along with overseeing IT and Data security. His current role as Craft Prospect’s Security, IT and Networks lead, is to maintain the highest levels of security within the company. This involves staying up to date with Cyber Security and maintaining the companies IT systems. Outside of work, Graeme enjoys watching/playing football, skiing, travelling, and spending time with family and friends.

Software Systems Engineer

Ahren graduated from the University of Strathclyde with a degree in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. He joined Craft Prospect as a graduate engineer, and now work as a software systems engineer leading an ESA nanosatellite mission for integrating on-board autonomy with our quantum and AI systems. In his spare time, Ahren likes badminton, swimming, baking and playing video games. He has surpassed Colin “Nothing But Net” Aitken as the better badminton player.

Assembly & Test Engineer

Kenny has over a decade of experience in electronic systems used to support the Royal Navy with Underway Acoustic Noise Ranging. He has a Bachelor’s degree in electronic and electrical engineering. His main role at Craft is as the Assembly and Test Engineer and he can usually be found tinkering with something in the lab. Outside of Craft Kenny is still a big kid at heart, playing a lot of video games, swimming, snowboarding and going to the gym.

Embedded Software Engineer

Charlotte is an AI Software Engineer at Craft Prospect. She graduated from the University of Central Lancashire in 2020 with an MEng in Robotics Engineering where she worked on projects spanning a variety of areas including deep learning, computer vision, embedded systems and IoT. Charlotte joined Craft Prospect in 2021 where she is working towards enabling onboard mission autonomy through her work on the Forwards Looking imager, a SmallSat payload that makes use of deep learning-based feature detection algorithms and the Astral Intelligence Toolbox.

In her free time, Charlotte enjoys practicing the banjo, getting lost in a good fantasy book, running, and working on stained glass projects.

 

Embedded Systems Engineer

Spyridon is an embedded systems engineer with an MSc in electronic and electrical engineering. He is primarily involved in SoC and FPGA design for various embedded applications. Also, he is interested in digital signal processing. His main role at Craft Prospect is the hardware-software codesign of embedded satellite systems for space. Before joining Craft Prospect, Spyridon was assisting the technical support department of the Hellenic Air Force.

Mechanical Engineer

Caitlin is a mechanical engineer within the Quantum Technologies team. Within Craft Prospect she mainly works on mechanical and thermal design for payloads as well as environmental testing to ensure Craft's new technologies can reach orbit safely.

Outside of work, Caitlin likes nothing more than camping in the finest rain, gales and clouds of midges Scotland has to offer. She also draws cartoons and enjoys watching basically all films, from the terribly impressive to the impressively terrible.

 

Graduate Systems Engineer

Lauryn is currently working as part of the Mission Architecture team as a Graduate Systems Engineer, supporting work in rendezvous and proximity operations, as well as dabbling in various other projects as she looks to develop new skills in her first job in industry. She has a Masters degree in Space Exploration Systems which also involved participation in the SEEDS (Space Exploration Development Systems) student placement, where she worked in an interdisciplinary team of 42 students - in collaboration with advisors from the space industry - to conduct a 6-month feasibility study of a sample-return mission to Venus

Outside of work, Lauryn enjoys watching football, “letting her nephews win” at tig, going to the gym, and has recently taken up long-distance running.

Graduate Space Systems Engineer

Georgia has an MEng in Aerospace Systems from the University of Glasgow. Recently graduated, her previous work includes a six-month masters project wherein she became very familiar with many aspects of CubeSats through systems evaluation. Currently, she is assisting the Responsive Ops team with systems and mission analysis, along with operations definition.

Outside of work, Georgia enjoys doing art in various forms, a good Hawaiian shirt, and getting up to high jinks in Dungeons and Dragons.

 

Quantum Communications Engineer

Taylor has a background in academia, with a PhD in experimental quantum optics. He is experienced in the generation, manipulation and detection of quantum states with post-doctoral experience in quantum metrology and sensing. His primary focus at Craft Prospect is entangled photon sources for next-generation satellite telecommunications and quantum key distribution missions.

Outside of Craft Prospect, Taylor spends most weekends attempting to play competitive sports before capitulating and just watching it. Taylor’s downtime usually revolves around chess, poker or extremely niche history documentaries.

Business Development Associate

Caroline has a background in Academia, with two Masters in Management and Business. Her main expertise lies in international business development, multicultural management, financial analysis, and female entrepreneurship. Her primary role at Craft Prospect is developing new business opportunities and marketing the company through conferences and events.

Outside of Craft Prospect, Caroline enjoys building Lego MOCs, architecture drawing, reading anthropology essays, admiring lighthouses and listening to Shakira.

 

AI Software Engineer

Cameron is an artificial intelligence software engineer with a background in computational methods for physics and data science with an MSc in both physics and astrophysics. His work focuses on the use of machine learning techniques to optimise intersatellite optical communications for use in future space-based communication networks.

Outwith work, he is a keen hillwalker who loves to bag Munros and rock climb when he gets the chance. When he has to stay at home, you’ll find Cameron buried in a book with his cat or out and about with friends.

Electronics Engineer

I am expert in schematic development in Orcad and board designing. I am working as electronic engineer in Craft Prospect in development of designing of optical communication blocks.

Control Systems Engineer

Maura is looking at the control and systems integration of the beam steering system. She has an MSc in Ultrasonic Engineering and an BEng in Mechatronics, both from the University of Glasgow. Previous work in research has led to a range of experience across electromechanical system design, robotics, and control – including ADCS.

Outside of work, Maura teaches coding at Glasgow libraries, loves watching football and has recently taken up a “creative welding” course.

Software & Web Development Engineering Apprentice

Previously I was a competitive gymnast for 13 years. I attended the Glasgow School of Sport, I competed for Scotland and competed internationally resulting 9th in the world at the time. I have always been interested in sports, in particular motorsports, hence my interest in engineering. So, once I left school, I attended City of Glasgow College, and I achieved a HNC in Electrical Engineering. I then attended the University of Strathclyde to continue my studies however, as a practical learner, university didn’t suit my personality so, I found an apprenticeship at Craft Prospect. Looking forward, I am excited to learn new things at Craft and any challenges I may face.