Chief Engineer, Space Vehicle Autonomy & SDA

Blue Origin; Denver (CO); On-site; USD 202,000 - 299,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision

401(k) with company match

Paid time off

Job summary

Blue Origin is seeking a Chief Engineer, Space Vehicle Autonomy, to lead the architecture and maturation of autonomous decision-making systems for satellite platforms. You will bridge traditional autonomy with AI/ML approaches, weaving SDA into the autonomy stack while partnering with GN&C, perception, and systems engineering teams to optimize the overall spacecraft design.

You will drive the technical direction, oversee verification across SIL/HIL campaigns, and serve as the final technical

Qualifications

• Bachelor of Science degree in an engineering-related field.
• Minimum of 20 years of advanced spacecraft design, development, or analysis experience.
• Demonstrated experience as a technical authority or chief engineer on complex spacecraft or autonomy programs.
• Deep understanding of traditional autonomy mechanisms (state machines, FDIR, rule-based logic) as well as AI/ML/CNN-based approaches to autonomy.
• Experience adjudicating complex technical trade-offs and leading Engineering/Failure Review Boards.
• Active or eligible TS security clearance (TS//SCI preferred).

Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical authority for space vehicle autonomy, setting the architecture and technical strategy for onboard autonomous decision-making across fault management, navigation, and mission execution.
• Define and evolve the autonomy architecture spanning traditional rule-based/deterministic autonomy and modern AI/ML and CNN-based perception and decision-making methods.
• Provide expert technical direction on OODA loop implementation for autonomous spacecraft operating in Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) mission profiles.
• Integrate Space Domain Awareness (SDA) principles into onboard autonomy for detecting and responding to objects and activity within the orbital environment.
• Lead the technical strategy for perception stacks, including sensor fusion, relative navigation, space object detection/tracking, and vision-based pose estimation.
• Guide the development and oversight of MLOps pipelines for flight-qualified ML/AI models.
• Define and own the verification strategy for autonomy and SDA functions across SIL/HIL test campaigns.

Job description

Blue Origin is seeking a Chief Engineer, Space Vehicle Autonomy, to lead the architecture and maturation of autonomous decision-making systems for satellite platforms. You will bridge traditional autonomy with AI/ML approaches, weaving SDA into the autonomy stack while partnering with GN&C, perception, and systems engineering teams to optimize the overall spacecraft design.

You will drive the technical direction, oversee verification across SIL/HIL campaigns, and serve as the final technical