Spacecraft Systems Engineer

Aerospace Mid-level (L4 equivalent) 2-5 years

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SpaceX

Boeing

Lockheed Martin

Blue Origin

Northrop Grumman

Rocket Lab

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The job description

Tech stack. STK, GMAT, Systems Tool Kit mission design, power/thermal/link budgets, MBSE (Cameo), requirements tools, CONOPS development

About the role

You will join the spacecraft systems team of a space company responsible for the satellite as an integrated whole. The team owns mission design, system budgets, and cross-subsystem trades from concept through operations. This role matters because spacecraft are unforgiving systems: no repair shop in orbit, and your budgets, interfaces, and CONOPS decisions determine whether the mission succeeds or becomes expensive debris. You will hold the entire spacecraft in your head at once: how a thermal design change ripples into power, how a mass overrun in structures eats propellant margin, how a payload mode change affects the link budget. Your systems engineering will be relentlessly quantitative, replacing opinions with budgets, trades, and analyses the whole team can inspect and challenge. You will run the technical rhythm of the program: working groups, trade reviews, and risk boards where decisions get made and documented. You will be the team's memory, maintaining the decision log and rationale that future engineers will need when they ask why the spacecraft looks the way it does.

What you will achieve

Deliver system-level designs meeting mission requirements with mass, power, and link margins held above 20 percent through CDR
Cut interface issues by 40 percent through rigorous ICD management and cross-subsystem trade studies documented with decisions
Own mission analysis: orbit selection, coverage, delta-V budgets, and lifetime predictions validated in STK/GMAT
Drive requirements flow-down from mission objectives to subsystem specs with complete verification traceability
Ship flight-ready spacecraft with system-level test campaigns (TVAC, vibe, EMC) executed and anomalies closed
Prevent late requirements churn by establishing disciplined change control with quantified impact assessment for every change request

What you will bring

Must-haves

2 to 5 years of experience in spacecraft systems engineering or satellite subsystem roles
Strong understanding of orbital mechanics, space environments, and spacecraft subsystem interactions
Ability to build and manage system budgets: mass, power, data, thermal, and link with margin philosophy
Working knowledge of mission design tools: STK or GMAT for orbit and coverage analysis
Familiarity with space systems standards: SMC-S-016, NASA-STD-5001, or ECSS as applicable
Experience with requirements management and verification planning across subsystems
Systems thinking: you see interactions and emergent behavior, not just components

Nice-to-haves

Experience with constellation design and deployment planning
Knowledge of launch vehicle interfaces and coupled loads analysis
Familiarity with MBSE tools (Cameo/MagicDraw) and SysML
Exposure to mission operations and on-orbit anomaly resolution
Experience with concurrent engineering or integrated design team environments