Kaan Çetinkaya

I’ve built mission-critical software for the space and defense industries for 15 years, spanning real-time embedded firmware to large-scale distributed systems. As a C/C++-focused communication and networking specialist, I design how systems exchange data reliably at scale, grounding architectural decisions in deep code-level understanding. I’m a founding engineer who designed and built a communication and networking backbone now flying on 21 satellites, including a 16-satellite commercial IoT constellation, while building and leading software teams of up to 12 engineers.

At Plan-S, I lead end-to-end control-plane and ground-segment engineering as Head of Software Engineering—architecting the fleet’s network stack and protocols (including command-and-control and custom file transfer), and evolving Plan-S CSP for authenticated, deterministic, flight-ready operation. I also shaped the embedded-Linux service framework, RF communication subsystems (UHF and S-band SDR), GNU Radio ground-station counterparts, and Delay-Tolerant Networking (Bundle Protocol and LTP). Earlier at ASELSAN, I designed embedded firmware and enterprise-grade test automation for military communications and contributed waveform/protocol research—fueling a quality-first engineering culture built on modular codebases, rigorous code review, and hands-on mentoring.