Senior Mission Operations Engineer for Lunar Landing

Firefly Aerospace; Cedar Park (TX); On-site; USD 135,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Firefly Aerospace in Austin, TX, seeks a Mission Operations Engineer III to scale complex, multi-manifested missions to lunar locations. You will own the end-to-end ground segment architecture and enterprise requirements, bridging spacecraft subsystems and real-time execution from planning through testing.

Define mission-specific ground segment specifications, lead verification campaigns, and coordinate cross-team activities.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering or related discipline.
• 7–12+ years of professional aerospace experience with focus on mission lifecycle.
• Proven track record leading a major mission phase and/or ground segment development.
• Experience architecting frameworks for ground systems, script validation protocols, or full-scale simulation campaigns.
• Strong proficiency in software for automating ground system tasks and mission-data processing.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end ground segment architecture and enterprise requirements (L0–L3).
• Define scope and requirements for mission-specific ground segment specifications across civil, national security, customer-specific, and data domains.
• Direct verification and validation campaigns from Site Acceptance Testing through Mission Scenario Testing.
• Own configuration control of the ground segment, key management, and access for operators and partners.
• Direct tasking and coordination across all contributing organizations to ensure mission readiness.

Skills

Aerospace Engineering

Mission lifecycle experience

Ground system scripting

Simulation campaigns

Stakeholder communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering or related discipline

Tools

Ground system automation software

Job description

Firefly Aerospace in Austin, TX, seeks a Mission Operations Engineer III to scale complex, multi-manifested missions to lunar locations. You will own the end-to-end ground segment architecture and enterprise requirements, bridging spacecraft subsystems and real-time execution from planning through testing.

Define mission-specific ground segment specifications, lead verification campaigns, and coordinate cross-team activities.