Principal Systems Engineer

University of Colorado; Colorado; On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance

Job summary

The University of Colorado Boulder’s LASP seeks a Principal System Engineer to provide technical leadership for flight instruments across Earth, planetary, heliophysics, and astrophysics missions. You will guide architecture, requirements, and verification while coordinating scientists, managers, and engineers throughout the instrument lifecycle.

Success hinges on balancing science goals with risk, cost, and schedule, and mentoring junior engineers as LASP advances multiple spaceflight programs.

Qualifications

• Proven track record leading flight instrument programs.
• Expertise in instrument architecture, requirements, and verification.
• Experience coordinating cross-disciplinary engineering teams.
• Strong leadership and mentorship for systems engineers.

Responsibilities

• Serve as technical authority for flight instrument lifecycle.
• Lead multidisciplinary engineering teams across mech, elec, optics, thermal, software, I&T.
• Define instrument architecture and verification plans.
• Own instrument requirements, interfaces, and baselines.
• Lead instrument reviews and integration with spacecraft.
• Mentor junior systems engineers and grow the organization.

Skills

Technical leadership

Systems engineering

Cross-disciplinary collaboration

Mentoring

Job description

The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) is seeking an accomplished Principal System Engineer to provide technical leadership for the development of world-class scientific instruments supporting a broad range of spaceflight missions. These instruments span Earth science, planetary science, heliophysics, astrophysics, and emerging national and international space initiatives. As a Systems Engineer, you will serve as the technical integrator for LASP instruments throughout formulation, development, integration, environmental testing, launch, and mission operations. Working closely with scientists, project managers, and multidisciplinary engineering team, you will ensure that scientific objectives remain aligned with engineering decisions throughout the instrument lifecycle.

This is an opportunity to influence every aspect of flight instruments while working alongside internationally recognized scientists, engineers, and mission partners. Successful candidates are team focused, thrive in technically ambiguous environments, make sound engineering decisions with incomplete information, and know how to balance scientific performance, technical risk, cost, and schedule to deliver exceptional science.

CU is an Equal Opportunity Employer and complies with all applicable federal, state, and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment. We are committed to creating a workplace where all individuals are treated with respect and dignity, and we encourage individuals from all backgrounds to apply, including protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.

Who We Are

LASP combines the agility of a university laboratory with the technical capability of a premier space mission organization. Engineers work directly alongside scientists, students, and mission operators, allowing technical decisions to move quickly while maintaining scientific excellence.

As part of the University of Colorado Boulder (CU), LASP began in 1948 and is a world‑recognised space science research institute that implements the full life cycle of science missions from the definition of the science questions through the development of space flight hardware and the subsequent mission operations. We are the only research institute in the world to have sent science instruments to all eight planets, Pluto, and beyond the solar system.

LASP combines all aspects of space exploration through our expertise in science, engineering, mission operations, and scientific data analysis. As part of CU, LASP also works to educate and train the next generation of space scientists, engineers and mission operators by integrating undergraduate and graduate students into working teams. Our students take their unique experiences with them into government or industry or remain in academia to continue the cycle of exploration.

What Your Key Responsibilities Will Be

Technical Leadership

Serve as a technical authority for the flight instrument throughout formulation, development, integration, launch, and commissioning.

Lead multidisciplinary engineering teams spanning mechanical, electrical, optical, thermal, software, I&T, contamination control, reliability, and science.

Foster a collaborative engineering culture emphasizing technical excellence and sound engineering judgment.

Mentor junior systems engineers and contribute to the growth of the project's systems engineering organization.

Instrument Architecture

• Define and evolve the instrument technical architecture.
• Own instrument requirements, interfaces, verification planning, and technical baseline.
• Guide instrument‑level trade studies balancing science performance, technical risk, cost, and schedule.
• Participate in the development of the Systems Engineering Management Plan and Concept of Operations.
• Lead instrument technical reviews.

Integration to the Spacecraft

• Participate in the development of spacecraft‑to‑instrument interface definitions.
• Represent the instrument team in spacecraft technical interactions.
• Ensure successful accommodation of instrument resources including mass, power, thermal, pointing, data volume, EMC, and fault management.
• Guide instrument and spacecraft‑interface verifications throughout integration and test.

Other Duties Assigned

Instrument Development

• Lead development of instrument assembly, integration, environmental testing, calibration, and characterization.
• Coordinate specialty engineering activities including contamination control, reliability, radiation, safety, and fault protection.
• Manage instrument technical resources and performance margins.
• Lead anomaly investigations throughout development and operations.

What Success Looks Like

• Deliver a flight instrument that has verified and validated instrument requirements to meet science objectives while balancing technical performance, cost, schedule, and risk.
• Build a technically cohesive instrument team that collaborates effectively across disciplines.
• Inspire confidence among scientists, engineers, project management, and mission partners.
• Enable groundbreaking science through robust engineering decisions.
• Establish an instrument architecture that successfully supports mission operations throughout the life of the mission.

What You Should Know

• Due to ITAR requirements, only US citizens and permanent residents may apply.
• International travel may be required.
• Relocation assistance may be available for this position.