P18621 Principal Electrical Engineer - Infrared Sensor Payloads

sierraspace; United States; On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Sierra Space is seeking a Principal Systems Engineer - Infrared Sensor Payloads to provide technical leadership and systems engineering oversight for advanced space-based infrared sensing capabilities supporting missile warning and missile tracking missions.

You will serve as a senior technical authority for the infrared mission payload, coordinating with payload suppliers, mission software and algorithms, spacecraft systems engineering, GNC, avionics, mission operations, and customer

Responsibilities

• Lead the definition, decomposition, allocation, and verification of mission-level and payload-level requirements for missile warning and missile tracking performance.
• Provide technical oversight of payload supplier activities throughout the development lifecycle, including design reviews, technical interchange meetings, risk reviews, qualification, acceptance testing, and delivery.
• Maintain an end-to-end understanding of the sensor-to-track performance chain, including target phenomenology, backgrounds, optics, focal plane performance, detection processing, discrimination, tracking, estimation, data fusion, and mission data products.
• Provide technical leadership for development, review and verification of missile detection and tracking algorithms, including detection, association, track initiation, state estimation, track maintenance, discrimination, and multi-sensor or multi-spacecraft track fusion.
• Work closely with algorithm and software teams to translate mission performance requirements into algorithm requirements, interfaces, test objectives, and verification criteria.
• Lead and review modeling, simulation, and analysis used to predict end-to-end mission performance across representative threat trajectories, viewing geometries, backgrounds, and operational scenarios.
• Evaluate infrared sensor performance including sensitivity, noise, dynamic range, spatial and temporal resolution, radiometric performance, calibration, line-of-sight knowledge, and other characteristics affecting missile detection and track quality.
• Support development and validation of performance budgets and technical margins spanning the payload, spacecraft, mission processing, and tracking algorithms.
• Ensure appropriate allocation and management of spacecraft-to-payload interfaces, including electrical, mechanical, thermal, data, timing, pointing, jitter, line-of-sight knowledge, and onboard processing interfaces.
• Work closely with spacecraft GNC and systems engineering teams to ensure pointing knowledge, pointing control, stability

Job description

Sierra Space Careers:

At Sierra Space, we build the missions and systems that keep our world secure in the domain above Earth.

Sierra Space team members share a spirit of innovation and collaboration and a belief that we can deliver on the boldest missions in space today. Together with our customers, we aim to safeguard our nation, sustain human presence in space, and secure the freedom of operations in low Earth orbit and beyond.

Our success is measured by the trust of those who rely on what we build and deliver, and our technologies keep the United States and its allies mission-ready throughout space.

We are mission-driven, and together, we are an extraordinary team.

About the Role

Sierra Space is seeking a Principal Systems Engineer -Infrared Sensor Payloads to provide technical leadership and systems engineering oversight for advanced space-based infrared sensing capabilities supporting missile warning and missile tracking missions.

In this role, you will serve as a senior technical authority for the infrared mission payload and associated missile detection, tracking, and mission-processing algorithms. You will work across payload suppliers, mission software and algorithms, spacecraft systems engineering, guidance/navigation/control, avionics, mission operations, and customer organizations to ensure delivery of an integrated sensing capability that meets demanding mission performance requirements.

The position will support proliferated low-Earth-orbit missile warning and tracking architectures similar to the Space Development Agency's Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) Tracking Layer. These missions combine space-based infrared sensing, onboard processing, advanced tracking algorithms, multi-sensor data fusion, and low-latency dissemination to provide persistent detection and tracking of conventional and advanced missile threats.

This is a highly interdisciplinary position requiring the ability to understand the complete sensing chain - from photons entering the payload through production of actionable missile track data - and to drive technical decisions across organizational and supplier boundaries.

About You

Our mission is driven by an unyielding commitment to advancing space-based technology in service of our customers and safeguarding national security. We seek individuals who are passionate about innovating beyond boundaries and relentlessly pursuing solutions that protect, preserve and empower - to join us in this critical mission.

We're looking for team members who align with our values, mission and goals - while also meeting the minimum qualifications below. The preferred qualifications are a bonus, not a requirement.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the lead systems engineering interface and technical authority for the program's infrared sensor payload , including requirements, architecture, interfaces, performance, development, integration, verification, and on-orbit performance.
• Provide technical oversight of payload supplier activities throughout the development lifecycle, including design reviews, technical interchange meetings, risk reviews, qualification, acceptance testing, and delivery.
• Lead definition, decomposition, allocation, and verification of mission-level and payload-level requirements for missile warning and missile tracking performance.
• Maintain an end-to-end understanding of the sensor-to-track performance chain , including target phenomenology, backgrounds, optics, focal plane performance, detection processing, discrimination, tracking, estimation, data fusion, and mission data products.
• Provide technical leadership for development, review and verification of missile detection and tracking algorithms , including detection, association, track initiation, state estimation, track maintenance, discrimination, and multi-sensor or multi-spacecraft track fusion.
• Work closely with algorithm and software teams to translate mission performance requirements into algorithm requirements, interfaces, test objectives, and verification criteria.
• Lead and review modeling, simulation, and analysis used to predict end-to-end mission performance across representative threat trajectories, viewing geometries, backgrounds, and operational scenarios.
• Evaluate infrared sensor performance including sensitivity, noise, dynamic range, spatial and temporal resolution, radiometric performance, calibration, line-of-sight knowledge, and other characteristics affecting missile detection and track quality.
• Support development and validation of performance budgets and technical margins spanning the payload, spacecraft, mission processing, and tracking algorithms.
• Ensure appropriate allocation and management of spacecraft-to-payload interfaces, including electrical, mechanical, thermal, data, timing, pointing, jitter, line-of-sight knowledge, and onboard processing interfaces.
• Work closely with spacecraft GNC and systems engineering teams to ensure pointing knowledge, pointing control, stabi