Senior Infrared Sensor Payload Systems Architect

Sierra Space; Louisville (CO); On-site; USD 164,000 - 226,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision plans

401(k) with 150% match up to 6%

3 weeks paid time off

Life insurance

Job summary

Sierra Space seeks a Principal Systems Engineer to provide technical leadership for infrared sensor payloads and missile warning/tracking architectures. You will drive requirements, interfaces, and end-to-end performance across suppliers, mission software, and spacecraft teams in a high-visibility program.

You will mentor engineers, manage risk, and ensure rigorous verification and validation across the payload chain, contributing to national security space missions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Physics, Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, or related.
• 14+ years of relevant experience preferred; higher-level degree may substitute for experience.
• Experience with space-based EO/IR sensor systems or similar remote-sensing systems required.
• Strong systems engineering background: requirements development, decomposition, architecture, interfaces, and risk management.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the lead systems engineering interface and technical authority for the infrared sensor payload, including requirements, architecture, interfaces, performance, development, integration, verification, and on-orbit performance.
• Provide technical oversight of payload supplier activities throughout the development lifecycle, including design reviews and qualification testing.
• Lead decomposition and verification of mission-level and payload-level requirements for missile warning and tracking performance.
• Maintain end-to-end understanding of sensor-to-track performance, including phenomenology, optics, focal plane performance, processing, and data fusion.
• Lead development, review and verification of missile detection and tracking algorithms, including multi-sensor tracking fusion.
• Collaborate with algorithm and software teams to translate requirements into algorithm interfaces and test objectives.
• Lead modeling, simulation, and analysis to predict end-to-end mission performance across threat scenarios.
• Evaluate infrared sensor performance metrics: sensitivity, noise, dynamic range, resolution, calibration, and LOE.

Skills

Systems Engineering

Requirements Decomposition

Architecture Development

Interface Definition

Verification & Validation

Risk Management

Sensor Performance Analysis

Target Tracking Algorithms

Technical Leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in a technical discipline

Tools

MATLAB

Python

C++

Job description

Sierra Space seeks a Principal Systems Engineer to provide technical leadership for infrared sensor payloads and missile warning/tracking architectures. You will drive requirements, interfaces, and end-to-end performance across suppliers, mission software, and spacecraft teams in a high-visibility program.

You will mentor engineers, manage risk, and ensure rigorous verification and validation across the payload chain, contributing to national security space missions.