Interview with Dr. Konrad Nieradka
Space was Konrad’s childhood dream. When he was 12, his parents bought him a Space Atlas. Later, he saved money for his first telescope and studied astrophysics. But he never dedicated 100% to a single topic. He dipped into other fields, like biomedical sensors, mobile communications, and business. Like this, he learned a unique toolset for problem solving.
He's full of energy and always involved into several topics at one time, eg he did his Phd while working in a full-time job. Does he get bored easily?
"If you do what you love, you’re never at work – as someone said. I like what I’m doing and a healthy variation in my tasks helps me maintain my drive. I wouldn’t recommend juggling too many threads, though. It always takes time to recalibrate for a new thing", he says.
VP Products & Services, Programme Team
What’s your role at Rivada Space Networks?
My job is to bring revolutionary telecommunications solutions to the market. For this, I run circles between Engineering, Strategy, and Business Development. Together with sales, we discover customers’ needs and invent new services. Then, with engineers, we define technical solutions. Finally, with the strategy team, we make sure that the numbers in the business plan add up.
What’s currently your biggest challenge at Rivada?
Time! We all know what we must do and how to do it, but we are racing against time. We must be smart about prioritizing. It’s also very important to know when something is good enough. At some point, additional effort brings marginal improvements. More hands and brains to work would help with this, so maybe the reader is up for a challenge.
What's your most useless talent?
Walking on stilts! When I was a kid, my friends built a pair of hand-held stilts. Everybody was struggling to get up on them and start walking. I found it surprisingly easy and was taking them for a walk almost every day. I can’t think of a use for this talent beyond a circus. Maybe an exoskeleton operator?