Senior On-Orbit Autonomy Architect for Space Vehicles

Blue Origin; Reston (VA); On-site; USD 183,000 - 256,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical benefits

Stock options

Paid time off

Job summary

Blue Origin is seeking a Principal Space Vehicle Autonomy Architect in Reston, VA to lead on-orbit autonomy strategies across vehicle, sensor/payload, and ground elements. You will guide end-to-end autonomous operations, rendezvous and proximity operations, and fleet-level autonomy for national security, civil government, and commercial programs.

You will interface with defense stakeholders, coordinate capability roadmaps, define mission-level requirements, and oversee testing and implementation

Qualifications

• B.S. in Aerospace, Software, Electrical, Mechanical, Physics, Systems Engineering, or related field.
• 10+ years of technical experience developing space mission design and autonomous systems.
• 10+ years of technical experience in the space autonomy domain, including on-orbit autonomous operations, relative navigation, orbital mechanics, and multi-spacecraft coordination.
• Strong background developing space autonomy CONOPs, requirements, and interface description documents.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with customers, stakeholders, systems engineering, architecture, hardware, and software teams to ensure cross-functional autonomy deliverables are identified and tracked
• Author proposal documents targeting national security customers, civil government agencies, and commercial entities pursuing advanced on-orbit autonomous operations
• Coordinate with GNC, ATX, Flight Software, Telecommunications, and Sensor/Payload teams to perform detailed trade studies for autonomous maneuver planning and RPO sequencing
• Establish goals and metrics to identify opportunities to deliver autonomous system solutions to cost, performance, and schedule requirements
• Inform autonomy performance, risk, and operations for scheduled missions and ConOps development
• Lead the development of on-orbit autonomy architectures including autonomous rendezvous, proximity operations, and multi-spacecraft coordination
• Lead the definition and development of full lifecycle autonomy including initialization, service orbit attainment, predictive health & degradation monitoring, OTA software updates, and end-of-life/deorbit
• Create high-level verification and testing processes to ensure compliance to requirements
• Mentor and train across the program to ensure autonomy approach, philosophy, and technology are understood
• Support autonomous operations during live mission activities, including real-time monitoring of autonomous maneuver execution and anomaly response

Skills

Leadership

Verbal & written communication

Customer relationship

Problem solving

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Bachelor's in Aerospace/Software/ Electrical/ Mechanical/ Physics/ Systems Eng

Ph.D. preferred

Tools

MATLAB/Simulink

STK

FreeFlyer

GMAT

Job description

Blue Origin is seeking a Principal Space Vehicle Autonomy Architect in Reston, VA to lead on-orbit autonomy strategies across vehicle, sensor/payload, and ground elements. You will guide end-to-end autonomous operations, rendezvous and proximity operations, and fleet-level autonomy for national security, civil government, and commercial programs.

You will interface with defense stakeholders, coordinate capability roadmaps, define mission-level requirements, and oversee testing and implementation