Senior Infrared Sensor Payloads Systems Engineer

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

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision plans

401(k) with 150% match

3 weeks paid time off

Job summary

Sierra Space is seeking a Principal Systems Engineer – Infrared Sensor Payloads to provide technical leadership for space-based infrared sensing capabilities supporting missile warning and tracking missions.

You will work across payload suppliers, mission software, spacecraft systems, and customer organizations to ensure delivery of an integrated sensing capability meeting demanding performance requirements. Strong systems engineering and leadership are essential.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Physics, Applied Mathematics, Computer Science, or related field.
• Significant experience in space-based EO/IR sensor systems or comparable remote-sensing systems is expected.
• Strong systems engineering background including requirements decomposition, architecture, interfaces, and verification.

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 through the development lifecycle and testing.
• Lead definition, decomposition, allocation, 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, detectors, and data fusion.
• Provide technical leadership for development and verification of missile detection and tracking algorithms, including multi-sensor track fusion.
• Collaborate with algorithm and software teams to translate mission requirements into algorithm requirements and verification criteria.
• Lead modeling, simulation, and analysis to predict end-to-end mission performance across threat trajectories and scenarios.
• Evaluate infrared sensor performance characteristics and calibration, to optimize track quality.

Skills

Systems engineering

Requirements development

IR payload performance

Algorithm development

Sensor fusion

Leadership

Modeling & simulation

Stakeholder communication

Education

Bachelors in Systems Engineering

Bachelors in Electrical Engineering

Bachelors in Aerospace Engineering

Tools

MATLAB

Python

C++

Job description

Sierra Space is seeking a Principal Systems Engineer – Infrared Sensor Payloads to provide technical leadership for space-based infrared sensing capabilities supporting missile warning and tracking missions.

You will work across payload suppliers, mission software, spacecraft systems, and customer organizations to ensure delivery of an integrated sensing capability meeting demanding performance requirements. Strong systems engineering and leadership are essential.