Senior Systems Engineer - Spaceplane Verified today

About the role

Join Dawn Aerospace in developing a remotely operated reusable spaceplane. We seek an experienced Systems Engineer to take ownership of critical vehicle functions, solve complex technical problems, and drive engineering decisions across multidisciplinary teams. This is a hands-on role for someone who leads from the front and shapes both the vehicle and how we engineer it.

What you will do

Take ownership of vehicle functions

• Own one or more vehicle functions end-to-end.
• Define functional behaviour, requirements, architecture, interfaces, and verification approaches.
• Drive technical decisions working closely with propulsion, structures, avionics, GNC, software, operations, and certification teams.
• Establish verification plans and support execution throughout the development lifecycle to deliver integrated vehicle capabilities.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to engineers working within your functional areas.

Lead aircraft system safety

• Lead Functional Hazard Assessments (FHA) for assigned functional areas.
• Develop system-level safety requirements and ensure hazards are effectively mitigated.
• Perform or contribute to Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), Common Cause Analysis (CCA), and other system safety activities.
• Support development of safety cases and certification evidence where required.

Demonstrate system reliability and assurance

• Translate reliability allocations and safety objectives from FHA into practical verification and qualification activities.
• Define appropriate combinations of testing, analysis, inspection, similarity, and operational evidence to support reliability claims.
• Develop qualification and environmental test programmes by deriving realistic vibration, shock, thermal, pressure, and other environmental conditions from expected operational use.
• Lead qualification and reliability demonstration activities, turning certification and safety objectives into practical engineering programmes.
• Work closely with design engineers to ensure reliability is designed into systems from the outset and demonstrated through robust engineering evidence.
• Help establish effective approaches for qualification, reliability demonstration, and engineering assurance across the spaceplane programme.
• Provide technical justification to support high-confidence reliability claims for critical vehicle functions.

What we are looking for

You are an experienced engineer who takes ownership, enjoys working across disciplines, and is comfortable making sound technical decisions in complex environments.

We expect applicants to bring strong experience in at least two or three of the following areas:

• Systems engineering for complex aerospace or other safety-critical systems.
• Ownership of system functions, including requirements, architecture, interfaces, and verification.
• Practical qualification and reliability demonstration of structural, mechanical, electrical, or avionics systems.
• Functional Hazard Assessment (FHA), Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), Common Cause Analysis (CCA), or reliability engineering.
• Environmental qualification testing, including development of test requirements and profiles.
• Flight test, vehicle integration, verification, and validation.
• Aircraft, spacecraft, launch vehicle, advanced unmanned aircraft, or other highly integrated safety-critical systems.

What makes you successful

• You quickly understand the strengths and capabilities of a team, adapt your approach accordingly, and raise the technical standard by leading through example.
• You naturally take ownership and drive work through to completion.
• You can understand complex systems and make pragmatic engineering decisions.
• You enjoy building practical engineering solutions rather than simply following process.
• You communicate clearly and influence technical direction through sound engineering judgement.
• You enjoy mentoring others and helping teams deliver higher-quality engineering outcomes.

About Dawn Aerospace

Dawn Aerospace is a space transportation company developing in-space propulsion systems, in-space servicing, and a reusable spaceplane. We are building the fastest and highest-flying aircraft ever to take off from a runway, combining rocket propulsion with aircraft reusability to enable high-frequency, low-cost access to sub-orbital space. Teams are distributed across the Netherlands, France, New Zealand, and the USA.