Vehicle Engineering Lead - Own the spacecraft end to end, from requirements to launch

Golden, Colorado | On-site

Opportunity Summary

We are preparing a low Earth orbit mission in which our modular spacecraft assemble themselves after deployment. As Vehicle Engineering Lead, you will be the single technical owner of that vehicle. You will hold the system baseline, integrate the work of every subsystem lead, and make the cross-discipline calls that keep performance, cost, and schedule on track all the way to the launch pad and into operations.

This is a hands-on systems leadership role on a small team. You will run budgets and margins, lead trade studies and design reviews, drive verification and environmental testing, and act as the technical face of the vehicle to the launch provider and any hosted payload customer. You report to the CTO and work every day with the GNC, mechanical, avionics, flight software, and manufacturing and test leads.

About Us

We are a venture-backed space company in the Denver aerospace corridor building modular spacecraft that launch compactly and assemble in orbit, making it possible to field structures larger than any single fairing and to upgrade or reconfigure vehicles on orbit instead of replacing them. Fresh off an oversubscribed seed round, we serve commercial, civil, and national security customers and are moving from flight demonstrations toward operational missions.

Job Duties

• Own the vehicle-level technical baseline, including requirements flowdown and traceability from design through launch and on-orbit operations
• Integrate the work of the GNC, mechanical, avionics, flight software, and manufacturing and test leads, with decision authority on tradeoffs that span subsystems
• Maintain the vehicle budgets for mass, power, data, link, pointing, thermal, and propellant, and drive margin decisions
• Manage the integrated schedule and cost baseline for the mission, reporting to the CTO
• Lead vehicle-level verification and environmental test planning through launch readiness
• Run mission trade studies and develop the concept of operations
• Lead design reviews, failure investigations, and root cause analysis
• Serve as technical point of contact with the launch provider on rideshare accommodation, compliance, and integration
• Serve as technical point of contact for hosted payloads, from ICD development through integration and test

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in aerospace, mechanical, or electrical engineering, or a related field
• 7+ years of spacecraft engineering experience, including flown hardware or software and at least one vehicle carried from design through launch (strong candidates from high-tempo, multi-vehicle programs with less experience will be considered)
• Hands-on engineering depth in at least two of structures, thermal, power, propulsion, GNC, avionics, or flight software, and enough working knowledge of the rest to challenge subsystem designs
• Experience writing and closing ICDs with launch providers or payload customers
• Direct experience with environmental test campaigns such as vibration, thermal vacuum, and EMI/EMC
• Able to work on-site in Golden, Colorado
• Must be a U.S. Person under ITAR (U.S. citizen or national, lawful permanent resident, refugee, or asylee) or eligible to obtain the required export authorization

Preferred Experience

• First-of-a-kind flight demonstration programs
• Rideshare integration on SpaceX Transporter or a comparable service
• On-orbit anomaly resolution
• Early-stage startup experience

Why Join Us

• Be the technical owner of the vehicle, with real authority over the system and a direct line to the CTO
• Take a first-of-its-kind in-space assembly mission from design to orbit
• Small, senior team where every engineer shapes the spacecraft
• Newly funded company scaling from demonstrations to operational systems
• Early equity through stock options
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Short- and long-term disability and life insurance
• Paid parental leave
• 3 weeks of paid vacation plus 10+ paid holidays per year

Compensation Details

$170,000 - $200,000 + equity