Rick Sarmento
System Architect at Iridium
Tempe, Arizona, United States
Summary
👤
Senior🎓
Top SchoolRick Sarmento is a System Architect with a decade of experience blending satellite-grade software engineering and astrophysics research, currently shaping systems at Iridium while maintaining an affiliated research role at Arizona State University. A former U.S. Navy Captain and Assistant Professor, he brings disciplined leadership and teaching experience to complex systems design and software delivery. His career traces back to embedded and satellite software at Motorola, Spectrum Astro, and Orbital Sciences, evolving into lead software systems and architecture roles that require both engineering rigor and scientific insight. Rick holds a BS in Information and Computer Science and a PhD in Astrophysics, and his research into the transition from Population III to Population II star formation signals a rare cross-domain fluency between cutting-edge science and operational systems. Colleagues rely on him to translate astrophysical modeling needs into robust, mission-capable software—an expertise that surfaces in both academic publications and production satellite systems. Based in Tempe, AZ, he combines practical spacecraft software experience with scholarly curiosity to solve problems others treat as siloed.
10 years of coding experience
19 years of employment as a software developer
Master’s Degree, Astrophysics, Master’s Degree, Astrophysics at Arizona State UniversityBS, Info and Computer Science, BS, Info and Computer Science at University of California, Irvine
Stackoverflow
456reputation
27kreached
10answers
39questions
Github Skills (38)
gravity10
simulations10
geodesy10
power-systems9
orbital-mechanics9
modeling9
astrodynamics9
hydrodynamics9
geophysics9
python8
macos-big-sur8
cosmology8
instantiation7
usb7
latex6
Programming languages (7)
Github contributions (5)
earnric/pynbody
Aug 2015 - Nov 2018
N-body and hydro analysis tools for python 2 and 3
Contributions:8 PRs, 37 pushes, 3 branches in 3 years 2 months
pythonbodyanalysis-toolsn-bodyhydro
earnric/proj2-pyNotebooks
Jul 2016 - Mar 2023
Contributions:2 pushes, 2 branches in 6 years 9 months
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