Principal Satellite Systems Engineer

EVONA; Denver (CO); On-site; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

EVONA in Denver, Colorado is seeking a Principal Satellite Systems Engineer to own satellite bus procurement and oversee supplier performance across design, verification, integration, and on-orbit operations.

You will collaborate with external vendors from requirements through environmental testing and launch, ensuring compliance with mission and environmental requirements for complex spacecraft.

Qualifications

• 5–12 years of aerospace or satellite systems engineering experience.
• End-to-end spacecraft programme experience from architecture through assembly, integration, testing, and on-orbit operations.
• Experience owning design, analysis, qualification, or verification of a satellite bus or complete spacecraft.
• Strong requirements development, decomposition, traceability, and verification experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical interactions with satellite bus suppliers and manage design or performance issues.
• Develop statements of work, bus specifications, system requirements, and verification criteria.
• Review spacecraft designs, ICDs, analysis packages, integration plans, and test reports.
• Evaluate vendor responses to RFIs and RFPs.
• Confirm supplier hardware and software meet mission, payload, and environmental requirements.
• Support payload-to-bus integration across power, data, thermal, structural, RF, timing, and software interfaces.
• Oversee qualification for LEO environments, including radiation, thermal, structural, and EMI/EMC considerations.

Skills

Requirements management

System integration

Supplier management

LEO environment knowledge

Verification & qualification

Architecture decomposition

RF/Communications

Timing systems

Education

Bachelors degree in engineering or related field

Job description

A leading Earth-observation and space technology company is hiring a Principal Satellite Systems Engineer to support the development and delivery of next-generation satellite systems.

This role will take technical ownership of satellite bus procurement and supplier oversight, working with external spacecraft vendors from initial requirements and design reviews through integration, environmental testing, launch, and on-orbit operations.

The Role

• Lead technical interactions with satellite bus suppliers and manage design or performance issues.
• Develop statements of work, bus specifications, system requirements, and verification criteria.
• Review spacecraft designs, ICDs, analysis packages, integration plans, and test reports.
• Evaluate vendor responses to RFIs and RFPs.
• Confirm that supplier hardware and software meet mission, payload, and environmental requirements.
• Support payload-to-bus integration across power, data, thermal, structural, RF, timing, and software interfaces.
• Oversee qualification for LEO environments, including radiation, thermal, structural, and EMI/EMC considerations.

What We’re Looking For

• Approximately 5–12 years of aerospace or satellite systems engineering experience.
• End-to-end spacecraft programme experience, from architecture through assembly, integration, testing, and on-orbit operations.
• Experience owning the design, analysis, qualification, or verification of a satellite bus or complete spacecraft.
• Strong requirements development, decomposition, traceability, and verification experience.
• Strong knowledge of LEO environments and their impact on spacecraft performance.
• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, aerospace, physics, or a related technical field.

Particularly Relevant Experience

• Earth-observation satellite programmes
• Satellite bus lead or spacecraft lead systems engineering
• RF communications, radios, transmitters, or transceivers
• Mission data recorders and space-qualified memory
• Precision timing systems
• Encryption hardware or IP cores
• Satellite flight-software architecture
• Space-based edge computing or AI processing
• Optical crosslink terminals
• Environmental qualification and test oversight

This is a broad, highly visible role suited to an experienced systems engineer who can combine deep spacecraft knowledge with strong supplier management and technical decision-making.

The position includes a competitive base salary, annual incentive, comprehensive benefits, and the opportunity to work on advanced Earth-observation missions.