Tristan Knotts didn’t set out to work in the space domain, but he’s since fallen in love with the sector’s economic potential and fast moving tech.
“Space definitely found me,” the 28-year-old told Payload of how he entered the sector.
Origin story: He joined Deloitte in 2020, working on telecommunications and tech. Because of the overlap between telecom and sat com, he got tapped to help establish Deloitte’s Commercial Space Practice in 2022, and today he’s one of only two full-time staff working in this area for the consulting firm.
“He is a go-to resource for space market insights across the 450k+ person firm and regularly conducts internal training and knowledge sessions,” Avinav Sinha, a senior manager in Deloitte’s space practice, wrote in his nomination.
Shifting times: Knotts said it’s critical for consulting firms such as Deloitte to have dedicated space practices as the community becomes increasingly centered around private companies.
“The industry is at this inflection point where you’re going from legacy space, big primes, and cost plus contracts, to the new space trends of now you have true commercialization in space,” he said. “This is where we saw the opportunity…this new trend of commercial space was really appealing for us. We saw traction that as an organization would be worth pursuing.”
On the horizon: Knotts needs to stay on top of industry trends as a whole to make sure he’s prepared to work with a broad group of clients. Some of the areas he’s watching for the biggest potential changes include:
- In the short term, satellite communications shifting to work more like terrestrial telecom operators
- In the long term, he’s watching novel space tech such as in situ resource utilization and space mining.
