Senior System Engineer

Clearspace; City Of London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

ClearSpace seeks a Senior Systems Engineer to join the Systems Engineering Team in the UK or Switzerland. You will shepherd satellite missions from concept through launch and in-orbit commissioning, coordinating interfaces and ensuring technical consistency across subsystems.

The role demands leadership of multidisciplinary teams, strong organization, and deep experience with system-level design, requirements, and lifecycle management in the spacecraft domain.

Qualifications

• Degree in aerospace, engineering or physics or equivalent.
• 10+ years in the spacecraft industry or similar.
• Experience decomposing system requirements and managing interfaces.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate system-level activities and maintain the system baseline.
• Lead technical assessments, trade-studies and baselines.
• Write and maintain engineering documentation and plans.
• Support AIV/T and in-orbit commissioning activities.

Skills

Team leadership

Project management

Systems thinking

Communication

Education

BSc/MSc in Aerospace, Engineering, Physics

Tools

Matlab/Simulink

DOORS

Job description

At ClearSpace, we believe in reusability, in affordability driving disruption, and that no progress is real unless it is sustainable.

Our company was founded in 2018 out of the realization that in-orbit servicing and space debris removal are vital services for the future of space exploration and operations. Today ClearSpace has assembled an expert engineering team and is leading the way toward sustainable space operations. From a garage in Switzerland, we now operate across UK and Europe, and are working with world-leading institutions and companies to bring our dream of a sustainable space ecosystem to life.

We are looking for a Senior Systems Engineer to join our Systems Engineering Team who will work on both our current missions and future projects. This position is open for the UK and for Switzerland.

The Role

As a Senior System Engineer, you will support the full technical development of satellite missions—from early concept and requirements through to launch and in-orbit commissioning. You’ll coordinate system-level activities, manage interfaces, and ensure technical consistency across subsystems, while maintaining control of the system baseline and engineering documentation.

Responsibilities

• Participation in technical activities planning, including technical schedule and cost
• Manage core SE elements such as functional analysis, concept of operations, mission analysis, system modes, specification tree and requirements, interfaces and engineering database
• Participation in risk, opportunity and resolution plans;
• Oversee sub-systems and software design, ensuring management and control of interfaces
• Provide technical input to Product Assurance activities
• Lead technical assessments, trade-offs, baseline definition and maintenance, budgets;
• Write and maintain engineering documentation
• Manage system technical baseline and ensure change control
• Ensure development and validation planning for system, spacecraft and Ground Segment in line with technical and programmatic constraints
• Follow implementation phase ensuring successful execution of AIV/T phase
• Support Launch and In orbit commissioning
• Consolidate and iterate on the system engineering process at a company-wide level

Must Have

• (BSc/MSc) Degree in Aerospace, Engineering, Physics or similar
• +10 Years' experience in spacecraft industry
• Experience in decomposition of system requirements, trade studies and sizing/error budget development for a Spacecraft system
• Familiarity with the full space program lifecycle, from business development, proposal generation and contract negotiations, all the way through design, development, assembly, test and successful delivery
• Confidence with leading multidisciplinary project teams
• Highly organized, capable of tracking multiple streams of critical activities at once

Nice to have

• Knowledge or a level of expertise including in one of these areas: Spacecraft System level design/analyses, Avionics/electronics, Electrical and Power, Attitude and Orbit Control, Propulsion, Thermal & Mechanical, Spacecraft AIT, Spacecraft LEOP + In-orbit operations, Manufacturing processes, Launcher Interfaces, FDIR
• Experience working in a technical capacity with LEO, MEO or GEO Spacecraft system definition and design
• Comfortable interacting with customers, both institutional (UKSA, ESA) and commercial

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