Junior Space Systems Engineer

Jackalope Digital LLC; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 35,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

Foundational in London is seeking a Junior Space Systems Engineer to join our space team, contributing to ground and space systems from lab to test bench. You’ll work across electrical and optical hardware, modelling, and verification, with a fast-growing startup environment and ownership on early projects.

You’ll engage in concept studies, modelling, integration and environmental tests, building real hardware and software solutions that connect ground, space, and data platforms.

Qualifications

• A degree in space systems engineering, aerospace or mechanical or electrical engineering, physics, or a closely related field.
• Strong engineering and physics fundamentals with first-principles thinking.
• Hands-on hardware experience from internships, projects or competitions.
• Practical software skills and hands-on problem solving (Python).
• Ability to work across software and hardware with clear communication.
• Right to work in the UK.

Responsibilities

• Translate mission needs into requirements, interfaces, and budgets.
• Build performance models and drive design decisions with data.
• Contribute to design, layout, tolerancing, and assembly of hardware.
• Assemble, align, and test hardware with environmental qualification.
• Validate ground-to-space performance and system integration.
• Own a slice of the system and document designs for iteration.

Skills

Python

Scripting & modelling

Hands-on hardware

Systems engineering

Ambiguity tolerance

Clear communication

UK work authorisation

Education

Space systems engineering / aerospace / mechanical / electrical engineering / physics degree

Tools

MATLAB

Job description

Junior Space Systems Engineer

Location: London, UK (on-site, Borough / London Bridge)

Type: Full-time

Level: Junior / early-career - ideal for someone coming off a graduate scheme, though exceptional recent graduates with strong project experience are very welcome

Compensation: £35,000-£45,000 depending on experience, plus meaningful equity through our government-backed EMI scheme

_____

We are Foundational

We're an early-stage, mission-driven startup tackling one of the hardest and most exciting engineering challenges in the space domain: building the most precise understanding of space and Earth using ground-based lasers.

Using satellite laser ranging (SLR) and space debris laser ranging (SDLR) data, we're giving the next generation of space companies exquisite orbital data - the foundation for resilient navigation, Earth observation, and precise space traffic control. This is essential infrastructure for the sustainability and resilience of the space domain, and we think it will be foundational to the future economy.

Our network doesn't stop at the ground. To close the loop on precision, we're building the small optical payloads that fly on-orbit and talk back to our stations, and the systems engineering that ties ground, space, and data platform into one coherent whole. That's where you come in.

The role

This is a hands-on engineering role where the successful candidate will be as happy working in the lab as they are behind a computer. You'll work in our space team but may get involved in ground systems as well - helping to define what we build, model it, then get hands-on to build, test, and prove it.

You'll see the full lifecycle: early concept and trade studies, through modelling and design, into integration, environmental test, and validation against our ground network. It's physics-first, hands-on work with a quick path from your bench to orbit. You'll sit in a small team of software and hardware engineers who don't draw hard lines between disciplines, and you'll be expected to cross those lines too.

Specifically, you'll get stuck into:

• Systems engineering. Turning mission needs into requirements, interfaces, and budgets (mass, power, link, pointing, timing, error). Running trade studies and making the case for a design decision with numbers behind it.

• Modelling & analysis. Building performance models - radiometry and link budgets, atmospheric transmission, pointing and attitude, detection probability - and using them to drive real design choices rather than to decorate them.

• Design & build. Contributing to the design of small space-based payloads and ground subsystems: component selection, layout, tolerancing, and assembly of hardware and optical benches alongside our senior engineers.

• Integration, test & verification. Assembling and aligning hardware, then putting it through environmental qualification (thermal, vibration, vacuum) and performance characterisation - and learning first-hand what survives launch.

• Ground-to-space validation. Working with the ground systems team to validate ranging precision and pointing accuracy end-to-end, so the payload and the network behave as one system.

• Owning your corner. Documenting designs, feeding lessons into the next iteration, and taking real responsibility for a slice of the system as we grow.

What we're looking for

You don't need flight heritage or a decade of experience. We care far more about strong fundamentals, hunger, and the ability to learn fast in a hands-on environment.

Essential

• A degree in space systems engineering, aerospace or mechanical or electrical engineering, physics, or a closely related field.

• Strong engineering and physics fundamentals, and the instinct to reach for a first-principles estimate before an opinion.

• Some practical engineering experience - a graduate scheme, internship, placement year, or a serious university project or competition team. What matters is that you've built something real and dealt with the consequences.

• Hands-on instincts. You like building, aligning, breaking, and fixing hardware, not only simulating it.

• Scripting ability for analysis and modelling (Python preferred; MATLAB or similar is fine).

• Comfort with ambiguity and ownership. You're energised by a startup where scope is broad, priorities shift, and nobody hands you a fully-specified task list.

• Clear communication and a collaborative, low-ego approach to working across software and hardware.

• The right to work in the UK.

Nice to have - genuinely optional

• Hands-on experience with space hardware: CubeSats or smallsats, optical ground stations, LiDAR, or laser systems. Academic projects and competitions absolutely count.

• Familiarity with orbital mechanics and the formats that go with it (TLEs, CPF/CRD).

• Exposure to environmental or space qualification testing.

• Optics fundamentals - geometrical and physical optics, radiometry, detectors and laser sources - or exposure to optical design software (Zemax, Code V).

• Comfort in Linux environments, or experience writing instrument control and data-analysis code.

• Awareness of laser safety standards (e.g. BS EN 60825).

• FPGA or embedded work, particularly for timing applications.

Why Foundational

• Real ownership. A high-impact role with genuine autonomy in a new startup - your contributions directly shape our product and our success.

• Cutting-edge work. Meaningful, challenging, complex problems at the frontier of the space domain.

• Equity that matters. Government-backed EMI scheme options in a fast-growing, VC-backed company.

• A team worth learning from. A dynamic, collaborative environment built on innovation, creativity, and teamwork - with room to grow fast.

• A mission you can believe in. What we build underpins the future of Earth observation and space traffic control.

Foundational is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and are committed to building an inclusive team.