Principal On-Orbit Autonomy Architect

Blue Origin; Denver (CO); On-site; USD 173,000 - 243,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance

Travel up to 25%

Blue Origin benefits package

Job summary

Blue Origin seeks a Principal Space Vehicle Autonomy Architect to lead on-orbit autonomy strategies across vehicle, sensor/payload, and ground elements. You will participate in trade studies, interface with defense and civil-space stakeholders, and guide autonomy-focused roadmaps and verification activities.

The role emphasizes leadership, mission design expertise, and a strong background in fleet-level autonomy and RPO, with emphasis on delivering extensible solutions in a fast-paced, highly

Qualifications

• B.S. in Aerospace, Software, Electrical, Mechanical, Physics, Systems Engineering, or related technical subject area
• 10+ years of technical experience developing space mission design and autonomous systems
• 10+ years of technical experience in the space autonomy domain, including on-orbit autonomous operations, relative navigation, orbital mechanics, and multi-spacecraft coordination
• Strong background developing space autonomy CONOPs, requirements, and interface description documents to flow to element-level teams
• Demonstrated experience with fleet-level autonomy and/or rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) throughout the mission design lifecycle

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with customers, stakeholders, systems engineering, architecture, hardware, and software teams to ensure cross-functional autonomy deliverables are identified and tracked
• Author proposal documents targeting national security customers, civil government agencies, and commercial entities pursuing advanced on-orbit autonomous operations
• Coordinate with GNC, ATX, Flight Software, Telecommunications, and Sensor/Payload teams to perform detailed trade studies for autonomous maneuver planning, RPO sequencing, and fleet-level coordination
• Establish goals and metrics to identify opportunities to deliver autonomous system solutions to cost, performance, and schedule requirements
• Assess fleet-level autonomy and RPO performance against current and future mission scenarios to align with company and customer needs
• Inform autonomy performance, risk, and operations for scheduled missions, including ConOps development, ground systems feasibility, and human-machine teaming frameworks
• Lead the development of on-orbit autonomy architectures - including autonomous rendezvous, proximity operations, and multi-spacecraft coordination
• Lead the definition & development of full lifecycle autonomy including initialization, service orbit attainment, predictive health & degradation monitoring, over-the-air software updates, and end-of-life / deorbit
• Create high-level verification and testing processes and procedures that ensure compliance to requirements
• Mentor and train across the program to ensure autonomy approach, philosophy, and technology are understood and implemented
• Support autonomous operations during live mission activities, including real-time monitoring of autonomous maneuver execution, anomaly response, and fleet state management

Skills

Autonomy architecture

RPO

MATLAB/Simulink

Trade studies

Leadership

Education

B.S. in Aerospace or related field

Ph.D. a plus

Tools

MATLAB/Simulink

STK

FreeFlyer

GMAT

Job description

Blue Origin seeks a Principal Space Vehicle Autonomy Architect to lead on-orbit autonomy strategies across vehicle, sensor/payload, and ground elements. You will participate in trade studies, interface with defense and civil-space stakeholders, and guide autonomy-focused roadmaps and verification activities.

The role emphasizes leadership, mission design expertise, and a strong background in fleet-level autonomy and RPO, with emphasis on delivering extensible solutions in a fast-paced, highly