# Staff Spacecraft Systems Engineer

**Company:** [Turion Space](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/turion-space)
**Location:** Irvine, CA
**Role:** Hardware Engineering
**Salary:** $190k – $260k/yr
**Experience:** 12+ years
**Skills:** spacecraft systems engineering, requirements management, systems architecture, mbse, MATLAB, Python, stk, gmat, doors, jama, cameo, satellite design, conops development, interface control documents
**Posted:** 2026-07-16

> Serve as Chief Program Engineer owning end-to-end satellite architecture, technical baseline, requirements traceability, and system budgets for GEO Space Domain Awareness missions using agile small satellites. Requires 12+ years spacecraft systems engineering experience leading full lifecycle programs and formal milestones.

## Job Description

## 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.

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