Kevin Tobias
Director of Product Management, Kratos Space
In 2023, Kevin Tobias and his team launched the satellite industry’s first edge native terminal, OpenEdge, an integral part of OpenSpace. The mission is to redefine the decades-old paradigm of proprietary, static, hardware-based satellite terminals with an open, flexible, software-defined approach.
Tobias is a tech enthusiast and inventor with patents in wireless and edge technology, but many might not know about his love of the outdoors. He’s an avid mariner with a U.S. Coast Guard captain’s license and has been guiding the Chesapeake Bay region for over a decade.
Tobias has completed over a dozen ultramarathons, including 80-mile runs along England’s Jurassic Coast and up Whistler Mountain in British Columbia. These races are steps toward his dream of competing in the famous UTMB race in the Alps in 2025.
“Having been in the space and satellite industry my entire career, I can say without pause, the innovation and transformation we are seeing today in space is unprecedented!” he said. “I’m absolutely delighted to have the opportunity to play a part in that with such a stellar team at Kratos Space.”
Why Watch
In 2024, Tobias’ focus is to expand multimission capabilities to the edge, covering Satcom, Earth observation, remote sensing and space domain awareness. This approach is rooted in an open, standards-based strategy, enabling partnerships with application vendors in the telecom sector to deliver superior market solutions.
Greg Quiggle, senior vice president of product management at Kratos Space, praised Tobias’ significant impact on the company. He highlighted how Tobias quickly assumed leadership of Kratos’ OpenEdge strategy, driving its formulation and execution and achieving several key developments and industry firsts in just a few years.
“Kevin has played an instrumental role in the DIFI consortium, producing the industry’s first DIFI compliant digitizer,” Quiggle continued. “Complementing our DIFI strategy, Kevin’s team has also produced the industry’s first MEF 3.0 certified OpenEdge platform, enabling satellite operators to openly leverage a powerful ecosystem of COTS networking and management applications in the world’s hardest to reach places. Looking forward to 2024, Kevin will focus on expanding this strategy to embrace the disruptive forces of 5G-NTN and AI/ML.”