Staff Mission Manager

Who We Are:

Inversion builds advanced reentry systems to deliver next-generation capabilities from space.

Our mission is to make Earth radically more accessible by turning Low-Earth Orbit into an on-demand logistics domain. We see space not as a destination, but as a platform — one that unlocks unprecedented speed and global reach.

Our spacecraft are designed to deliver payloads anywhere on Earth in under an hour, operating through extreme reentry conditions and landing with high precision. These systems open the door to new ways of testing, delivering, and operating at hypersonic speeds.

Inherently dual-use, our technology is built to meet urgent national security needs while laying the groundwork for future commercial applications. Backed by leading investors including Y Combinator, Spark Capital, and Lockheed Martin Ventures, and working with partners such as the U.S. Space Force and NASA, Inversion is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in space-based defense and logistics.

What You’ll Do:

As a member of our Mission Management team, you will serve as the primary point of contact for customers from early capabilities studies through launch, on-orbit operations, re-entry, and recovery. You will support new business proposals from initial requirements verification through mission design, vehicle development, and testing. You will work directly with the engineering team from diverse fields to quickly iterate on solutions and ensure customer requirements are met.

Responsibilities:

• Lead all programmatic aspects from contract award through integration, integrated test, launch, on-orbit operations, and re-entry, ensuring contract requirements are met.
• Support multiple programs and competing priorities concurrently.
• Support proposal efforts to align new efforts with long-term strategic vision and engineering objectives, and to ensure contract requirements are executable.
• Interface with internal engineering, management, and production teams to ensure on-time execution and success of the mission.
• Collaborate with engineering to understand vehicle readiness and how changes impact requirements, risk, and launch dates.
• Work closely with the Business Development team to support proposal generation and coordinate mission activities with overall business activities.
• Lead technical projects from contract signature through mission completion.
• Work with the customer to mitigate and resolve technical and programmatic issues that arise with a success-oriented approach and resolution.

Required Qualifications:

• Minimum of a bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to work in a multi-disciplinary engineering team building space-flight hardware.
• Experience acting as the primary interface of a company and program to an external customer.
• Typically 9+ years of experience in program management, project management, systems engineering, or operations with a focus on customer experience.
• Proven ability to work effectively in a fast-paced environment.
• Demonstrated excellent verbal and written communication skills.

Desired Qualifications:

• Master’s degree in an engineering discipline.
• Experience in working with government customers or acquisitions.
• 12+ years applicable experience.
• Strong interpersonal skills, and an ability to tailor communications to the audience.
• Exceptional leadership, organizational, team building, and people management skills.
• Excellent technical writing skills especially involving multi-party interface specifications.
• Excellent communication skills to deal with the customer at the technical and management level as well as the internal engineering team.

Our office headquarters is located in Playa Vista, CA. This position requires in office presence.

_{The California annual base salary for this role is currently $161,000 - $221,000. Pay Grades are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual pay will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: interviews and an assessment of several factors that are unique to each candidate, job-related skills, relevant education and experience, certifications, abilities of the candidate and internal equity.}