Senior Mission Lead Systems Engineer, Commercial Payloads

Muon Space; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Muon Space is seeking a Senior Mission Lead Systems Engineer in San Jose, CA to act as the technical lead for a mission from concept through on-orbit operations. This hybrid role requires on-site work three days per week in the San Jose, CA office and close collaboration with hardware, software, and operations teams.

You will own end-to-end mission success, develop requirements and ICDs, perform system modeling, and coordinate with Programs, BD, and customers to reduce risk while delivering

Qualifications

• Experience leading complex system designs for government or demanding commercial customers.
• Strong modeling, systems analysis and simulation capabilities.
• Excellent communication, presentation and coordination skills.
• Ability to manage external customers and multi-disciplinary teams.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the ultimate technical authority for the mission, guiding design and development.
• Lead the mission design process tailoring to program needs and refine processes.
• Translate customer objectives into verifiable technical requirements.
• Interface with customers, partners, and internal stakeholders on all technical matters.
• Manage requirements traceability, verification, and validation.
• Define CONOPS and manage subsystem budgets (power, data, mass, pointing).
• Coordinate design changes across disciplines throughout the lifecycle.
• Lead design, test readiness, and flight readiness reviews.
• Monitor on-orbit spacecraft and data pipelines to ensure mission success.

Skills

Technical leadership

Systems engineering

Customer interfacing

Requirements management

Project management

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering

Job description

About The Role

Muon seeks a Senior Mission Lead Systems Engineer to join our Mission Engineering team. At Muon, we are developing multiple missions to help understand and act on Earth and climate intelligence. As a Senior Mission Lead Systems Engineer, you will serve as the technical lead for a specific Muon mission, owning the end-to-end technical success from concept through on-orbit operations for our most demanding missions, spanning both government and high‑assurance commercial programs. This role is pivotal as we scale our engineering rigor to meet the exacting standards of any customer requiring high‑reliability systems, including those in the U.S. Government (USG), Department of Defense (DoD), Intelligence Community (IC), and select commercial sectors. In this role you will have a “big-picture” view of mission execution, spanning the full lifecycle of mission design - from initial formulation with the Business Development team, through execution with the space vehicle hardware and software teams, to on‑orbit validation and mission performance monitoring with the Operations team. You will be the primary technical interface with customers and cross functional team leads to develop requirements and ICDs, work with other Systems Engineers to perform system modeling, develop test plans with AI&T teams, and identify and reduce risk across the program with Program Managers. Muon is a lean and agile team, so keys to success in this role are your ability to “right-size” analysis and processes for differing levels of system maturity and risk, your flexibility to work with changing demands and schedules, and your effective communication of technical content to a diverse audience. This position is hybrid and requires working on‑site in our San Jose, CA office three days per week.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the ultimate technical authority for your designated mission, leading the conceptualization, design, and development of the mission. Drive critical cross-functional technical trades and decisions to ensure mission success.
• Lead the tailoring and implementation of the Muon mission design process for your designated mission, ensuring alignment with program needs, while contributing to process refinement across all missions.
• Own the translation of customer objectives and stakeholder needs into clear, verifiable, and actionable technical requirements for your designated mission.
• Serve as the primary technical point of contact for your designated mission, interfacing with customers, partners, and internal stakeholders on all technical matters.
• Manage requirements traceability, verification, and validation
• Define mission CONOPS and manage subsystem budgets (e.g., power, data, mass, pointing/stability).
• Identify and mitigate internal and external mission risks, communicating impacts effectively.
• Assess and coordinate design changes across disciplines throughout the program lifecycle.
• Lead design, test readiness, and flight readiness reviews.
• Monitor on‑orbit spacecraft and data pipelines to ensure mission success and that customer requirements are met.
• Foster deep collaboration with and provide technical direction to systems, hardware, software, data, ground segment, and operations teams for your designated mission, and support these interactions across other missions.
• Effectively serve as the Mission Lead Systems Engineer for one mission while contributing general systems engineering expertise and support to other Muon missions, potentially deputizing for other Mission Lead Systems Engineers as needed.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of engineering processes, tools, and methodologies to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in mission development and operations.

Qualifications

• B.S. or higher degree in an engineering field and 10+ years of experience in complex system, mission architecture, and/or spacecraft design, with a focus on high-rigor development for government and/or demanding commercial customers.
• Demonstrated experience as a technical lead (e.g., Chief Engineer, Lead Systems Engineer) on at least one complex system design for a USG, DoD, IC customer, and/or commercial customer.
• Experience directly interfacing with and managing expectations for external customers.
• Extensive experience in system modeling, systems analysis, and running simulations.
• Proven history of system integration and delivery of complex systems.
• Experience in formal requirements management for a multi-disciplinary project.
• Demonstrated project management skills and ability to collaborate with other engineering disciplines.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and coordination skills.
• Ability to rapidly change roles/responsibilities while working in a high‑paced, rewarding