Flight Telecom Systems Engineer II: Spacecraft Comms

citjpl; United States; On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, seeks a Flight Telecom Systems Engineer II to join the Flight Communications & Tracking Section. You will contribute across the product lifecycle, from concept to flight model development, testing, and flight operations support.

The role emphasizes complex telecom tasks, collaboration with senior engineers, and delivering reliable spacecraft subsystems.

Responsibilities

• Provide telecom system engineering support on flight telecom subsystems for deep-space interplanetary missions, Earth-orbiting missions, and lunar/Mars relay networks.
• Demonstrate collaborative, team-oriented approach; support teammates and contribute to a safe, positive culture.
• Take ownership of assigned tasks and deliverables, communicating progress, risks, and recommendations clearly to senior engineers and task leads.
• Build strong working relationships across the telecom team and with other subsystem engineers, laying groundwork for future technical leadership roles.
• Participate actively in technical reviews and team discussions, offering sound engineering judgment and contributing to decisions that build trust with senior staff.
• Generate telecom component and subsystem-level requirements, responding to project and flight system needs with appropriate requirements flow down.
• Develop and prepare interface agreements between the telecom subsystem and other spacecraft subsystems.
• Conduct system-level link analyses, using statistically-derived link parameters.
• Partner with other engineers to evaluate current telecom components, algorithms, subsystems, and end-to-end system performance.
• Conduct software simulations and hardware tests, summarizing results to verify telecom system functionality.
• Contribute new ideas and concepts toward the improvement of existing telecom products and technologies.
• Present analyses and technical results at peer-level design and technical reviews.
• Contribute technical content, data, and graphics to proposal and CSR development efforts.
• Serve as SME on concept teams, applying telecom expertise to devise, validate, and benchmark new approaches.
• Support the tracking and documentation of mass, power, and data volume specifications and allocations for assigned telecom components, under the guidance of senior engineers.
• Perform and/or provide independent review of reliability analyses and interface failure mode analysis.
• Draft or update telecom functional description documents, comm behavior manager documents, and other design control documents related to the telecom

Job description

Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, seeks a Flight Telecom Systems Engineer II to join the Flight Communications & Tracking Section. You will contribute across the product lifecycle, from concept to flight model development, testing, and flight operations support.

The role emphasizes complex telecom tasks, collaboration with senior engineers, and delivering reliable spacecraft subsystems.