Senior Spaceplane Systems Engineer: Lead Vehicle Functions

Dawn Aerospace; Christchurch; Hybrid; NZD 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Dawn Aerospace in Christchurch is seeking an experienced Systems Engineer to take ownership of vehicle functions, drive safety, reliability, and certification activities across multidisciplinary teams. You will define requirements, architecture, interfaces, and verification approaches, leading from the front to shape both the vehicle and the way we engineer it in a fast-moving environment.

This hands-on role demands practical problem-solving, mentorship for engineers, and clear technical

Qualifications

• FHA, FTA and CCA experience for safety analyses.
• Ownership of system functions, including requirements, architecture, interfaces and verification.
• Experience in environmental qualification testing and qualification programs.
• Flight test, vehicle integration, verification and validation experience.
• Participation in safety certification evidence and safety cases.

Responsibilities

• Take end-to-end ownership of one or more vehicle functions or systems.
• Define functional behaviour, requirements, architecture, interfaces, and verification approaches.
• Drive technical decisions across propulsion, structures, avionics, GNC, software, operations and certification teams.
• Establish verification plans and support execution through development to deliver integrated vehicle capabilities.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship within your functional areas.

Skills

Systems engineering

Safety-critical

Cross-disciplinary collaboration

Leadership

Job description

Dawn Aerospace in Christchurch is seeking an experienced Systems Engineer to take ownership of vehicle functions, drive safety, reliability, and certification activities across multidisciplinary teams. You will define requirements, architecture, interfaces, and verification approaches, leading from the front to shape both the vehicle and the way we engineer it in a fast-moving environment.

This hands-on role demands practical problem-solving, mentorship for engineers, and clear technical