Staff Systems Engineer

ABOUT THE TEAM 

In the Space Special Programs team, we build spacecraft and space systems which serve a wide variety of functions in the space architecture. At a time when space superiority can no longer be taken for granted and with space systems proliferating at an incredible rate, the Space Special Programs team provides advanced, mission critical capabilities to our customer base to be able to more effectively operate and survive within this expanding environment with limited personnel. Working across product, engineering, sales, logistics, operations, and mission success, the Space Special Programs team develops, tests, deploys, and operates new, unique, space capabilities to drive mission success in challenging operational environments. 

ABOUT THE JOB

We are looking for a Staff Systems Engineer to join our rapidly growing team in Chantilly, VA. In this role, you will be responsible for the full life cycle of design, development, integration & test, and operations for spacecraft and associated systems including maintaining and managing requirements, risks, budgets, and trade studies; interfacing with the other spacecraft disciplines to assure the system is meeting requirements and goals; and interfacing with customers and internal stakeholders to communicate progress. You are expected to be an individual contributor as well as the team lead.  Additionally, you will be responsible for helping develop the system and mission designs & concepts, and, as the expert systems engineer, for mentoring and growing your team. 

WHAT YOU'LL DO 

• Work with a cross-functional team to design market leading hardware products 
• Drive product maturity through rapid prototyping, design verification, and qualification activities 
• Apply modern space-flight hardware design standards and guidelines to create high-reliability, highly manufacturable systems 
• Develop, track, and maintain system requirements and work with other disciplines to assure the overall system as well as subsystems are meeting, testing, and verifying compliance with the requirements 
• Define, track, and maintain program risks and risk burn-down plans 
• Define, track, and maintain system budgets 
• Lead the team in establishing internal guidelines and best practices for space flight hardware design, test, manufacture, and operations 
• Conduct peer-level and cross-discipline design reviews and develop customer-facing system design documentation and presentations 
• Help drive development, integration and test activities to meet schedule 
• Work in a fast-paced environment, having to juggle multiple concurrent projects and customers 

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS 

• B.S. in aerospace, mechanical, computer science or similar engineering or technical field 
• 13+ years Engineering Experience across the life cycle for spacecraft and space systems 
• 3+ years of leading a systems engineering team working on small spacecraft 
• Experience developing subsystem requirements and interfaces; including mission systems 
• Experience on mature spacecraft development programs including operational and environemental testing. 
• Experience developing various design artifacts, such as: Design Review material (CoDR, SDR, PDR, CDR, TRR, etc), trade studies, risk matrices and burn-down plans, non-conformance investigations and dispositioning 
• Outstanding communication skills to include presentation of developed artifacts 
• Must be a U.S. Citizen and able to obtain and maintain a U.S. Top Secret security clearance 

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS 

• M.S. in aerospace, mechanical, computer science or similar engineering or technical field 
• Demonstrated High ownership and autonomy across the entire cradle-to-grave lifecycle of a spacecraft or space system. 
• Demonstrated ability to work in an extremely fast-paced, nimble, environment with programs that have limited, broad, Level-0 requirements 
• 3+ years working in a classified environment