Senior Deep-Space Mission Operations Lead

Blue Origin; Reston (VA); On-site; USD 157,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Parental leave

401(k) match

Education support

Job summary

Blue Origin, based in Reston, VA (hybrid/onsite with option for Denver), is seeking a Senior Mission Operations Engineer to lead deep-space operations for a Mars-bound relay mission. You will head small teams, design operations concepts, and deliver operational products for long-duration, high‑latency missions.

The ideal candidate has 10+ years in spacecraft operations, demonstrated on-orbit leadership, and strong end-user focus. The role requires U.S.

Qualifications

• B.S. in Aerospace, Computer Science, Systems, or related fields; 3+ years of experience managing technical teams.
• 10+ years of experience in spacecraft operations development and execution, including on-console leadership of on-orbit operations.
• Demonstrated ownership of scope, schedule, and budget for a mission or major deliverable.
• Experience operating a spacecraft beyond Earth orbit on a deep space, lunar, or planetary mission.
• Experience planning operations under one-way light time of minutes or more.

Responsibilities

• Lead mission from contract award through closeout, owning operations scope, schedule, budget, risk, reporting, and customer relationship.
• Own operations concept across all mission phases including launch, Earth departure, cruise, and relay commissioning.
• Develop mission plans, tools, and processes for efficient operations under long light time.
• Coordinate staffing for mission events and ensure certification of on-console personnel.
• Provide real-time leadership during launch and early orbit phases from mission control.
• Drive automation and AI/ML to improve operations reliability and efficiency.
• Represent operations to the customer at reviews and in performance reporting.
• Mentor early career engineers to build team depth.

Skills

On-console leadership

Verbal & written comms

Systems thinking

Customer focus

Education

B.S. in Aerospace/CS/Systems

Tools

Python

SPELL

STOL

JAS

Ground software (virtualized)

Job description

Blue Origin, based in Reston, VA (hybrid/onsite with option for Denver), is seeking a Senior Mission Operations Engineer to lead deep-space operations for a Mars-bound relay mission. You will head small teams, design operations concepts, and deliver operational products for long-duration, high‑latency missions.

The ideal candidate has 10+ years in spacecraft operations, demonstrated on-orbit leadership, and strong end-user focus. The role requires U.S.