Senior On-Orbit Autonomy Architect for Spacecraft

Blue Origin; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 173,000 - 256,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Paid parental leave

Education support program

Job summary

Blue Origin is seeking a Principal Space Vehicle Autonomy Architect to drive on-orbit autonomy strategies across vehicle, sensor/payload, and ground elements. You will lead trade studies, proposal development for national security and civil government customers, and coordinate with GNC, ATX, and Flight Software teams to define mission-level autonomy requirements.

You will guide end-to-end autonomy from initialization to deorbit, mentor teams, and ensure rigorous verification and testing while

Qualifications

• B.S. in Aerospace, Software, Electrical, Mechanical, Physics, Systems Engineering, or related technical subject area.
• 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.
• Demonstrated experience with fleet-level autonomy and/or RPO throughout the mission design lifecycle.
• Applied experience in autonomy and mission design tools such as MATLAB/Simulink, STK, FreeFlyer, GMAT, or equivalent.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with customers and teams to identify and track cross-functional autonomy deliverables.
• Author proposal documents targeting national security, civil government, and commercial entities for on-orbit autonomous operations.
• Coordinate with GNC, ATX, Flight Software, Telecommunications, and Sensor/Payload teams for detailed trade studies.
• Establish goals and metrics to improve autonomy performance on cost, performance, and schedule.
• Inform autonomy performance and operations for scheduled missions and ConOps development.
• Lead development of on-orbit autonomy architectures including rendezvous and multi-spacecraft coordination.
• Create full lifecycle autonomy concepts including initialization, in-orbit operations, OTA updates, and end-of-life planning.
• Develop high-level verification and testing processes to ensure requirement compliance.
• Mentor across the program to implement autonomy approaches and advance team capabilities.
• Support autonomous operations during live missions with real-time monitoring and anomaly response.

Skills

Space mission design

Autonomy strategies

Fleet-level autonomy

Rendezvous & Proximity Operations (RPO

Leadership & mentorship

Communication skills

System engineering coordination

Security clearance readiness

Education

B.S. in Aerospace, Software, Electrical, Mechanical, Physics, Systems Engineering, or related technical subject area

Tools

MATLAB/Simulink

STK

FreeFlyer

GMAT

Job description

Blue Origin is seeking a Principal Space Vehicle Autonomy Architect to drive on-orbit autonomy strategies across vehicle, sensor/payload, and ground elements. You will lead trade studies, proposal development for national security and civil government customers, and coordinate with GNC, ATX, and Flight Software teams to define mission-level autonomy requirements.

You will guide end-to-end autonomy from initialization to deorbit, mentor teams, and ensure rigorous verification and testing while