Staff Mission Lead Systems Engineer Verified today

About the Role

Muon seeks a Staff Mission Lead Systems Engineer to join the Mission Execution team. You will work on multiple missions delivering Earth and climate intelligence via LEO satellite constellations. In this role you will partner with the Mission Architecture team during early mission formulation, shaping technical concepts, driving architecture trades, and developing requirements baselines. When a mission you help formulate is selected for implementation, you become the Mission Lead Systems Engineer, owning end-to-end technical success from concept through on-orbit operations.

You will have a full-lifecycle view of mission design: from initial formulation with Business Development, through execution with hardware and software teams, to on-orbit validation and operations. This role is critical as Muon scales engineering rigor to meet exacting standards for U.S. Government, Department of Defense, Intelligence Community, and commercial customers.

Success requires your ability to right-size analysis and processes for different levels of system maturity and risk, flexibility with changing demands and schedules, and effective communication of technical content to diverse audiences.

Key Responsibilities

• Partner with Mission Architecture during study efforts to develop mission concepts, run architecture trade studies, and shape technical baselines for prospective missions and proposal responses
• Develop and maintain mission-level system models including architecture, requirements, interfaces, and behavior models, carrying these artifacts from study phase into implementation
• Serve as ultimate technical authority for your designated mission, leading conceptualization, design, and development. Drive critical cross-functional technical trades and decisions
• Lead tailoring and implementation of Muon mission design process for your mission, ensuring alignment with program needs while contributing to process refinement across all missions
• Translate customer objectives and stakeholder needs into clear, verifiable, actionable technical requirements
• Serve as primary technical point of contact for your mission, interfacing with customers, partners, and internal stakeholders on all technical matters
• Manage requirements traceability, verification, and validation
• Define mission CONOPS and manage subsystem budgets for power, data, mass, and pointing/stability
• Identify and mitigate internal and external mission risks, communicating impacts effectively
• Assess and coordinate design changes across disciplines throughout the program lifecycle
• Lead design, test readiness, and flight readiness reviews
• Monitor on-orbit spacecraft and data pipelines to ensure mission success and customer requirements are met
• Foster deep collaboration with and provide technical direction to systems, hardware, software, data, ground segment, and operations teams
• Serve as Mission Lead Systems Engineer for one mission while contributing expertise to other Muon missions and potentially deputizing for other Mission Lead Systems Engineers
• Contribute to continuous improvement of engineering processes, tools, and methodologies

Required Qualifications

• B.S. or higher degree in an engineering field
• 10+ years of experience in complex system, mission architecture, and/or spacecraft design, with focus on high-rigor development for government and/or demanding commercial customers
• Demonstrated experience as a technical lead (Chief Engineer, Lead Systems Engineer) on at least one complex system design for USG, DoD, IC customers, and/or commercial customers
• Experience with major space programs for USG, DoD, IC customers, and/or commercial customers
• Experience with USG/IC acquisition programs, standards for space systems development, and mission assurance standards
• Strong understanding of USG/IC contracts and their artifacts
• Experience supporting proposal development (RFI/RFP responses) for government contracts
• Extensive experience in system modeling, systems analysis, and running simulations
• Proven history of system integration and delivery of complex systems
• Experience in formal requirements management for multi-disciplinary projects
• Demonstrated project management skills and ability to collaborate with other engineering disciplines
• Excellent communication, presentation, and coordination skills
• Ability to rapidly change roles and responsibilities in a fast-paced environment
• Active TS/SCI security clearance

Nice-to-Have Skills

• Direct engineering experience with RF systems: RF payload/instrument design, link budget analysis, spectrum and regulatory considerations, mission-level RF architecture trades
• Experience with Cameo Systems Modeler or equivalent SysML MBSE tool to capture mission architecture, requirements, interfaces, and behavior
• Software skills in Python or Julia
• Familiarity with software engineering tools and processes (version control, code review)
• Knowledge of industry standards for electrical and/or software quality practices
• Remote sensing instrument experience across multiple modalities (optical, multispectral, RF) and associated data pipelines

Compensation and Location

Salary range: $194,000 to $230,000 plus competitive equity grant and comprehensive benefits. Final compensation based on skills, qualifications, experience, and geographic location.

This position can be performed remotely from an approved location or based in Washington D.C., Northern VA, or Denver area.

Benefits

Full-time employees receive medical, dental, and vision insurance; 401k retirement plan; short and long term disability and life insurance; three weeks paid vacation for new employees; 12 paid holidays; unlimited sick time; and paid parental leave.

ITAR/Export Control Requirements

This position requires access to export controlled information. Applicant must be a U.S. person, defined as a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. lawful permanent resident (green card holder), refugee under 8 U.S.C. Section 1157, or asylee under 8 U.S.C. Section 1158; or be eligible to access the export controlled information without a required export authorization; or be eligible and reasonably likely to obtain the required export authorization from the applicable U.S. government agency.