Founding CTO - Spacecraft

EVONA; El Segundo (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

EVONA is seeking a hands-on Founding CTO to own the technical direction of a spaceflight hardware platform, including an orbital laboratory system. You will lead architecture, design and flight readiness while growing a multidisciplinary engineering team.

This is a founding executive role with substantial ownership, requiring deep flight-hardware experience and the ability to communicate strategy to customers and investors as the company scales.

Qualifications

• 8–15+ years of spacecraft, launch vehicle or complex flight-hardware engineering experience.
• Experience taking hardware through multiple stages: design, analysis, manufacturing, integration, qualification/test and flight.
• Strong systems thinking and the ability to make technical decisions beyond a single engineering discipline.
• Experience within a fast-moving NewSpace, launch, satellite or similarly hardware-intensive environment.

Responsibilities

• Own the overall technical architecture and engineering direction of the spacecraft and orbital laboratory platform.
• Remain deeply involved in engineering during the next phase of spacecraft development, test and flight.
• Lead technical decisions across structures, thermal, avionics, power, GNC, software, payloads and spacecraft integration.
• Drive hardware from concept to design, build, qualification, integration, launch and operations.
• Build and develop a multidisciplinary engineering organisation as the company scales.
• Establish engineering processes to move quickly without compromising mission success.
• Collaborate with the CEO on product roadmap, technical strategy and major company decisions.
• Grow into external responsibilities of a CTO, representing technology to customers, partners and investors.

Skills

Spacecraft engineering

Technical leadership

Flight hardware design

Systems thinking

Cross-disciplinary collaboration

Job description

Type: Full-time

Stage: Venture-backed early-stage space company

We are working with a well-funded space technology startup developing next-generation autonomous laboratories and payload systems for low Earth orbit. With paying customers, significant funding and flight hardware already in development, the company is now looking for a Founding CTO to take technical ownership of the business as it moves from early development into flight and scale.

This is not a traditional executive CTO position.

We are looking for an exceptional hands-on spacecraft engineer and technical leader who has spent their career designing, building, testing and delivering real flight hardware and is ready to make the step into company-level technical leadership.

You might currently be a Lead Engineer, Principal Engineer, Vehicle Lead, Deputy Chief Engineer or Chief Engineer within a high-performing NewSpace organisation.

What you'll do

• Own the overall technical architecture and engineering direction of the company's spacecraft and orbital laboratory platform.
• Remain deeply involved in engineering, particularly during the company's next phase of spacecraft development, test and flight.
• Lead technical decisions and trades across structures, thermal, avionics, power, GNC, software, payloads and spacecraft integration.
• Drive hardware from concept and requirements through design, build, qualification, integration, launch and operations.
• Build and develop a multidisciplinary engineering organisation as the company scales.
• Establish the engineering processes required to move quickly without compromising mission success.
• Work directly with the CEO on product roadmap, technical strategy and major company decisions.
• Grow into the external responsibilities of a CTO, representing the technology to customers, partners and investors.

What we're looking for

• Approximately 8–15+ years of spacecraft, launch vehicle or complex flight-hardware engineering experience.
• A track record of personally designing and delivering flight hardware, rather than purely managing engineering teams.
• Experience taking hardware through multiple stages of the lifecycle: design, analysis, manufacturing, integration, qualification/test and flight.
• Strong systems thinking and the ability to make technical decisions beyond a single engineering discipline.
• Experience working across multiple spacecraft or vehicle subsystems and resolving complex multidisciplinary engineering problems.
• Experience within a fast-moving NewSpace, launch, satellite or similarly hardware-intensive environment.
• Technical leadership experience, whether through leading engineers, owning a major vehicle/system or acting as the technical authority for critical hardware.
• The ambition and communication ability to grow from an outstanding engineering leader into a credible customer, investor and executive-facing CTO.

What matters most

We're not looking for someone who has already spent years as a career CTO.

We're looking for someone who can point to spacecraft or flight hardware and say:

“I helped design that. I built it. I tested it. I got it to flight.”

You should still want to be close to the engineering, enjoy solving difficult hardware problems and have the potential to become the technical face of a rapidly scaling space company.

This is an opportunity to make the jump from technical engineering leadership into a founding executive role, with meaningful ownership and the ability to shape both the spacecraft and the company around it.