Senior Director of Spacecraft Structure & Mission Hardware

Muon Space; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 233,000 - 262,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity compensation

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401k retirement plan

Paid vacation and holidays

Parental leave

Disability and life insurance

Job summary

Muon Space seeks an experienced leader to guide the Bus Structure and Missions team in its next phase of growth. You will design and own spacecraft bus structures, GSE, and mission-specific testbeds, reporting to the Senior Director of Hardware Engineering.

The ideal candidate is a seasoned cross‑discipline leader with program management experience, capable of organizing and scaling fast-growing teams and delivering high-quality, low-volume/high-mix products.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of experience designing and/or managing the design of complex, high reliability systems that operate in harsh environments.
• 8+ years of people management experience managing engineers and engineering managers.
• Bachelor’s/Master’s/PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related field.
• Excellent leadership, program management, communication, teamwork, and problem-solving skills.
• Proven experience managing complex engineering projects from concept to deployment, including budget and schedule management.
• Ability to rapidly change roles/responsibilities in a fast-paced environment with new challenges each week.
• Strong technical background understanding fundamentals of mechanical and electrical design & analysis.
• Excited to work in a fast-paced environment with new challenges each week

Responsibilities

• Lead a team to architect, design, analyze, and qualify bus platforms to meet mission requirements.
• Collaborate with Product, Business Development, System Engineering, Software Engineering, Operations, and more to meet customer needs.
• Collaborate with Mission Management and customers to understand mission and instrument needs.
• Implement instances of bus platforms for missions and ensure milestones are met.
• Own spacecraft level structural and thermal analysis and bus level testing strategies.
• Produce and maintain hardware-in-the-loop testbeds for integrated software and hardware testing on flight-representative systems.
• Support new mission proposals, contribute to cost models, and ensure mission feasibility pre-contract.
• Own design of MGSE & EGSE for production of spacecraft platforms.
• Mentor and support multiple levels of team managers and enable scalable growth within the team.

Skills

Leadership

Program management

Communication

Teamwork

Problem-solving

Adaptability

Education

B.S./M.S./Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science or related field

Job description

About The Role

Muon seeks an experienced leader to guide our Bus Structure and Missions team through our next stage of rapid growth. This team has a large scope including designing & owning our spacecraft bus structures, GSE, testbeds, and tailoring each to specific mission needs. The role reports to Muon’s Senior Director of Hardware Engineering and has strong talent in mechanical, thermal, structural, and electrical engineering reporting to them.

About The Role

Muon seeks an experienced leader to guide our Bus Structure and Missions team through our next stage of rapid growth. This team has a large scope including designing & owning our spacecraft bus structures, GSE, testbeds, and tailoring each to specific mission needs. The role reports to Muon’s Senior Director of Hardware Engineering and has strong talent in mechanical, thermal, structural, and electrical engineering reporting to them.

The ideal candidate is a seasoned, cross-disciplined leader who is experienced at organizing and scaling rapidly growing teams and has strong program management skills. Experience with designing and manufacturing low volume, high mix products efficiently is a must.

This position is hybrid and requires working on-site in our San Jose, CA office three days per week.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team to architect, design, analyze, and qualify a catalog of bus platforms to meet a wide range of mission requirements.
• Collaborate with Product, Business Development, System Engineering, Software Engineering, Operations, and more to ensure buses meet the needs of our growing portfolio of customer missions.
• Collaborate with Mission Management and our customers to understand mission specific and instrument specific needs.
• Implement instances of our bus platforms for these missions. Ensure all mission milestones are met.
• Own Spacecraft level structural and thermal analysis & bus level testing strategies.
• Produce and maintain mission specific hardware-in-the-loop testbeds to enable integrated software and hardware testing on a flight-representative system.
• Support new mission proposals, contribute to cost models, and ensure mission feasibility pre-contract.
• Own design of mechanical and electrical ground support equipment (MGSE & EGSE) required for production of spacecraft platforms.
• Mentor and support multiple levels of team managers and enable scalable growth within the team.

Qualifications

• 15+ years of experience designing and/or managing the design of complex, high reliability systems that operate in harsh environments (spacecraft, autonomous vehicles, drones, etc).
• 8+ years of people management experience managing engineers and engineering managers.
• B.S., M.S., or Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related field.
• Excellent leadership, program management, communication, teamwork, and problem-solving skills.
• Proven experience managing complex engineering projects from concept to deployment, including budget and schedule management.
• Ability to rapidly change roles/responsibilities while working in a high-paced, rewarding work environment with new challenges each week.
• Strong technical background understanding the fundamentals of mechanical and electrical design & analysis.
• Excited to work in a fast-paced environment with new challenges each week

Salary

The salary range for this role is $233,000 - $262,000, plus a competitive equity grant and comprehensive benefits package. Final compensation will be determined based on skills, qualifications, experience, and geographic location as assessed during the interview process.

About Muon Space

Founded in 2021, Muon Space is an end-to-end Space Systems Provider that designs, builds, and operates LEO satellite constellations delivering mission‑critical data. Our revolutionary, integrated technology stack enables customers to optimize every dimension of their missions for faster time-to-orbit and superior constellation remote sensing performance. Our state-of-the-art facility in the heart of Silicon Valley is optimized for manufacturing spacecraft and rapid, flexible payload integration at scale. From climate monitoring to national security, Muon Space is dedicated to delivering Earth Intelligence for a safer and more resilient world.

Taking Care of Our Team

At Muon salary is only part of our total compensation package. In addition to salary, full-time employees receive equity compensation as well as benefits including medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401k retirement plan, short & long term disability and life insurance. We also offer three weeks paid vacation for new employees, along with 12 paid holidays, unlimited sick time and paid parental leave.

Our mission embraces the entire planet and we believe our team should too. Muon is dedicated to creating a diverse and dynamic company and workforce. We believe in equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, age, national origin, citizenship, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, or gender identity. We value diversity in the workplace, and that starts with our applicants.

In addition, if you need a reasonable accommodation as part of your application for employment or interviews with us, please let us know.

ITAR/EAR Requirements

This position requires access to export controlled information. To conform to U.S. Government export regulations applicable to that information, applicant must either be (A) a U.S. person, defined as a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (green card holder), (iii) refugee under 8 U.S.C. 1157, or (iv) asylee under 8 U.S.C. 1158, (B) eligible to access the export controlled information without a required export authorization, or (C) eligible and reasonably likely to obtain the required export authorization from the applicable U.S. government agency. The Company may, for legitimate business reasons, decline to pursue any export licensing process.

• 1157, or (iv) asylee under 8 U.S.C.
• 1158, (B) eligible to access the export controlled information without a required export authorization, or (C) eligible and reasonably likely to obtain the required export authorization from the applicable U.S. government agency. The Company may, for legitimate business reasons, decline to pursue any export licensing process.