Success story

Solving space mysteries

Zaid Al-Khatib knew from a very young age that he wanted to work with computers. Both his parents are civil engineers, so Zaid was almost inevitably being pulled into engineering as well. When he was only 11 years old, he learned how to build computers and program them. Since then a lot has happened. Zaid moved from Saudi Arabia to Canada to study computer engineering, got into the aerospace-industry and was involved in some high-profile aerospace software-projects. In 2021 he found his place at TMC. ‘I could give you a whole sales pitch about TMC. You don’t just come across this exciting way of working anywhere else.’

Zaid Al-Khatib - Software Developer

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Like magic

Knowing how a computer works, has always intrigued Zaid. His mother taught him all about programming when he was still very young. ’I was the kid who got called in by the teachers whenever they didn’t know why their computer wasn’t working. They were really happy with me!’ Zaid compares computer engineering to magic. ‘I wanted to demystify the magic box’.

His curiosity made Zaid a great student in middle school and high school. Then, there was only one logical next step: to study computer engineering. Zaid followed his brother to Concordia University in Canada. During his first year there, he visited a conference about aerospace companies. ‘The conference was in French, so I did not understand a single word. But the slides looked so cool, the pictures of satellites and airplanes were fascinating.’ After that he was convinced he wanted to work in the aerospace industry.

Meaningful work

After his education at Concordia, Zaid joined a startup company that manufactured and installed entertainment systems in privately owned jets. ‘Of course it’s nice that people aren’t bored on their planes, but I wanted to put my mental capacity into something that was more meaningful’. So Zaid started working on numerous aerospace-projects for different employers. He was involved in high-visibility projects like requalifying B737 Max simulators after two crashes of aircrafts of this type in Indonesia and Ethiopia and fixing two ransomware-infected simulators in India. Zaid also worked at Raytheon on the modernization of the North Warning System, the system in the arctic region that protects Canada by signaling possible threats approaching the country.

Great fit

‘Halfway through my contract at Raytheon, I was contacted by TMC. They had a project for me at MDA, the biggest manufacturer of anything space related in Canada. I could not say no, because MDA was the coolest company I had ever heard of. They are involved with almost anything space related. From moon landers and moon rovers to telescopes to satellites.’ The past year and a half Zaid has worked on rewriting applications to modernize MDA’s 4th generation earth imaging radar satellite.

Zaid had applied for a job at MDA before, but with no luck. This time he got in. When TMC contacted him, his initial thought was that it must be a marketing hype. ‘I had never heard about a company that works this way. Not many companies are this open and invest this much in the development of their employees. It sounded too good to be true. But here we are!’

The employeneur model is a great fit for Zaid. ‘TMC helps me see the bigger picture, teaches me about how to run a business and how I can bring value for my employer and the client. I recently joined a TMC training about informal leadership. This was a big eye opener to me. It’s important to have people skills; to make sure that your ideas are being heard and to work efficiently in teams.’ Since last September Zaids project at MDA has come to an end. His deliverables were met. Now he spends his time on scoping new space companies and projects and sourcing TMC-candidates for MDA.

Own projects

It feels good to Zaid to start something new after a year and a half at MDA. But his future plans are not fixed yet. ‘I want to keep growing as a technical expert. And maybe I want my own thing on the side.’ TMC offers him the opportunity to explore and find out what his next step is going to be. ‘I can attend different sessions here at TMC. Hearing about all the different projects in the Entrepreneurial Lab makes me think if there are ways of starting my own projects. TMC gives me a great kickstart to do this. I get to have so many interesting conversations and make new connections every day. I am planning on finding a good business idea somewhere in the next five to ten years.’

There are also quite a few new companies in the space industry that have popped up the last seven to eight years, to which Zaid would like to contribute. ‘These smaller, young teams with PhD-students are starting up some really cool new projects. Like building moon observatories. And delivering internet to space, which allows space satellites to send data through the internet. So there are still new mysteries for me to solve.’

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