Senior Spacecraft Systems Architect

ALTEN; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Private Medical Insurance

Cycle & Tech Scheme

Employee assistance programme

Life insurance & Pension Scheme

Social atmosphere & team events

Flexible working (role dependent)

Job summary

ALTEN in London is seeking an experienced System Architect to define and oversee the technical architecture of a major spacecraft mission. You will shape end-to-end system design and ensure seamless integration across electrical, mechanical, RF, software, thermal, and payload domains.

You will lead system-level concept development, maintain baselines, and produce detailed specifications. The role requires space industry expertise, MBSE tooling knowledge, and the ability to coordinate across

Qualifications

• Mandatory Space industry experience — direct involvement in spacecraft architecture, satellite systems, or mission‑critical space hardware.
• Proven experience defining system architectures for complex aerospace or space platforms.
• Strong understanding of subsystem domains (electrical, mechanical, RF, software, thermal, payload).
• Skilled in producing system‑level documentation, specifications, and architectural models.
• Strong analytical skills for trade studies, risk analysis, and architectural decision‑making.
• Ability to coordinate across multidisciplinary engineering teams and drive system‑level coherence.
• Experience supporting system‑level verification, validation, and design reviews.

Responsibilities

• Define the overall spacecraft architecture, ensuring alignment with mission objectives, constraints, and performance requirements.
• Lead the development of system‑level concepts, including functional breakdowns, subsystem interactions, and high‑level design flows.
• Own and maintain the technical baseline, ensuring consistency across electrical, mechanical, RF, software, thermal, and payload domains.
• Produce and manage system specifications, architectural documentation, and interface definitions.
• Drive trade‑off analyses, evaluating design options across performance, reliability, mass, power, and cost.
• Support risk identification, mitigation strategies, and architectural decisions that impact mission reliability.
• Oversee system‑level verification and validation, ensuring the architecture is fully testable and compliant.
• Collaborate with AIT, mission operations, and engineering teams to ensure architectural consistency throughout development and testing.
• Provide senior technical leadership, mentoring engineers and influencing long‑term architectural strategy.

Skills

Space industry

system architectures

subsystem domains

system-level docs

trade studies

multidisciplinary coordination

system verification

Education

Engineering degree

Tools

MBSE tools

Job description

ALTEN in London is seeking an experienced System Architect to define and oversee the technical architecture of a major spacecraft mission. You will shape end-to-end system design and ensure seamless integration across electrical, mechanical, RF, software, thermal, and payload domains.

You will lead system-level concept development, maintain baselines, and produce detailed specifications. The role requires space industry expertise, MBSE tooling knowledge, and the ability to coordinate across