Mission Architect
Washington, DCLos Angeles, CASolutions ArchitectureOnsite5+ YOE
Summary
Serve as primary technical contact guiding satellite operators from discovery through deployment on Northwood's ground station network. Partner with BD, Engineering, and PM to translate mission needs into priorities and ensure successful onboarding.
About the role
Responsibilities
- Make customer missions succeed on Northwood's network.
- Serve as the primary technical contact for customers during capture, evaluation, onboarding, and post-deployment.
- Support Business Development on qualification, proposals, and expansion.
- Lead technical discovery, exchanges, demos, and readiness reviews alongside Program Management.
- Learn each customer's mission, workflows, constraints, decision criteria, and success metrics in depth.
- Translate customer needs into clear priorities for Engineering, Product, and BD.
- Get hands-on with implementation and integration — working directly alongside customers and Engineering to bring up, troubleshoot, and validate their operations on the network.
- Surface friction points, adoption blockers, and recurring needs that should shape the product and network.
- Coordinate onboarding and deployment readiness — clarifying requirements, flagging risks, and aligning internal teams around customer objectives.
- Build reusable discovery frameworks and customer-facing materials that help Northwood scale capture and customer success.
Requirements
- 5+ years in customer-facing technical roles: solutions or systems engineering, mission operations, technical business development, capture engineering, solutions architecture, or TAM.
- Bachelor's in EE, CE, CS, Aerospace, or related field — or equivalent experience with mission systems, ground systems, networking, cloud, or satellite operations.
- Track record taking complex customer engagements from discovery through deployment or expansion.
- Proven ability to build trust with technical customers and turn ambiguous mission needs into concrete priorities.
- Comfortable working in ambiguous environments spanning hardware, software, networking, and business objectives.
- Strong communicator — able to lead technical conversations, write clear customer materials, and brief internal stakeholders.
- Effective across BD, Engineering, Product, Program Management, and customer teams.
- Willing to travel up to 30%.
Nice-to-Haves
- Background in satellite communications, RF, space operations, ground stations, or telecom infrastructure.
- Experience with proposals, technical evaluations, demos, pilots, or proof-of-concept work.
- Experience managing technical relationships in mission-critical environments.
- Familiarity with APIs, networking protocols, telemetry, scheduling systems, cloud infrastructure, or mission assurance.
- Ability to obtain or hold TS/SCI clearance.
Compensation & Benefits
- Base salary determined case-by-case based on job-related knowledge, skills, education, and experience.
- Eligible for equity in the form of stock options or other long-term incentives, and potential performance bonuses.
- Comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage.
- 401(k) retirement plan.
- Short- and long-term disability insurance, life insurance.
- Paid parental leave, generous paid time off, and various other perks and discounts.
Skills
Solutions EngineeringSystems EngineeringMission OperationsTechnical Business DevelopmentCapture EngineeringSolutions ArchitectureSatellite CommunicationsRFNetworkingCloud Infrastructure