Staff Spacecraft Systems Engineer

Key Responsibilities

Program Chief Engineering Leadership

• Serve as Chief Program Engineer for assigned programs, owning end-to-end satellite architecture and ensuring appropriate technical progress throughout the program lifecycle.
• Drive resolution of complex cross-disciplinary technical issues, making authoritative architectural decisions that balance performance, cost, and schedule.
• Lead teams through all technical milestones including SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, PSR, and post-launch operations.
• Interact directly with customers and suppliers as the primary technical point of contact to ensure mission success.

Mission Definition & Technical Baseline

• Own and maintain system-level budgets for mass, power, delta-V, pointing, data, and link, ensuring the technical baseline meets requirements and intended capability performance.
• Work alongside mission stakeholders to define and refine mission CONOPS, translating operational needs into rigorous system-level requirements.
• Lead derivation and maintenance of system requirements, ensuring full traceability from mission-level objectives through system, subsystem, and component requirements.
• Ensure requirements decomposition is executed correctly and that traceability is maintained throughout the entire technical baseline.

Requirements Traceability & Compliance

• Establish and maintain robust requirements traceability frameworks to satisfy customer compliance documentation expectations.
• Author and oversee Interface Control Documents (ICDs) and all systems engineering documentation required for program compliance.
• Define and execute verification and validation plans (test, demonstration, analysis, inspection) at system and subsystem levels.
• Track system compliance and overall performance against mission needs, proactively identifying and resolving gaps.

Stakeholder & Team Leadership

• Provide top-level technical leadership across the entire spacecraft lifecycle, from proposal and concept through design, manufacturing, test, and operations.
• Collaborate with and guide multi-disciplinary engineering experts across all subsystems.
• Work with internal and external stakeholders to ensure mission CONOPS alignment and technical coherence.
• Mentor senior and mid-level systems engineers, elevating team-wide systems engineering discipline.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a related field.
• 12+ years of experience in spacecraft systems engineering or spacecraft design, with hands-on experience in satellite design and integration.
• Demonstrated experience serving as a Chief Program Engineer or lead systems engineer on a complete spacecraft program.
• Deep expertise in requirements derivation, decomposition, and traceability from mission level through subsystems.
• Proven ability to own and maintain all system-level budgets (mass, power, delta-V, pointing, link, data) across the full project lifecycle.
• Experience authoring and managing compliance documentation and requirements traceability artifacts for customers.
• Strong track record leading teams through formal technical milestones (SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, etc.).
• Must be able to obtain a Secret and/or TS/SCI clearance.

Preferred Qualifications

• Deep technical experience with GEO Space Domain Awareness or other missions relying on highly maneuverable and agile spacecraft.
• Experience working with Department of Defense or Intelligence Community organizations.
• 15+ years of experience in spacecraft systems engineering or spacecraft design with full product lifecycle experience: concept, preliminary design, manufacturing, testing, and operations.
• Experience as Chief Program Engineer or equivalent role with direct customer-facing technical accountability.
• Experience with Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) and applicable software such as Cameo, Capella, Innoslate, or others.
• Experience with satellite analysis tools such as Python, MATLAB, STK, GMAT, or FreeFlyer.
• Experience with requirements management tools such as Jama, DOORS, Flow, or others.
• Familiarity with customer compliance frameworks and formal traceability documentation expectations (e.g., government or DoD programs).
• Previous experience in a startup or fast-paced commercial space environment.