Senior Vehicle Engineer

Lux Aeterna; Denver (CO); On-site; USD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

Paid time off and company holidays

401(k) retirement plan

Job summary

Lux Aeterna in Denver, CO is seeking a Senior Vehicle Engineer to own a mission's vehicle from design through reflight. You will manage vehicle-level requirements, budgets, and interfaces, and act as the technical contact for payloads and the launch provider.

The role grows with the fleet, potentially expanding to product-level ownership. The role requires hands-on subsystem ownership, experience with environmental testing, and strong cross‑discipline leadership as the company builds reusable

Qualifications

• BS in aerospace, mechanical, or electrical engineering.
• 7+ years spacecraft engineering with at least one flight vehicle.
• Hands-on subsystem ownership with hardware or flight software.
• Experience with environmental test campaigns (vibration, thermal vacuum, EMI/EMC).
• Strong communication and ability to work across teams.

Responsibilities

• Own vehicle-level requirements and ensure traceability across subsystems.
• Own and maintain budgets: mass, power, data, and margins with subsystem leads.
• Own interface control between subsystems, payloads, and launch provider.
• Serve as technical POC for payload customers from ICD through integration and on-orbit operations.
• Build and run verification program: requirements-to-test matrix and test closure.
• Lead mission-level trade studies and contribute to platform-level trades.
• Conduct design reviews, failure investigations, and root-cause analysis.
• Execute requalification and reflight criteria and feed learnings back to the platform.
• Provide vehicle knowledge to operations for flight readiness.

Skills

Spacecraft engineering

Subsystem ownership

GNC

Avionics

Software

Environmental testing

Cross-team communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in aerospace, mechanical, or electrical engineering

Job description

The Mission

Space is the infrastructure layer for humanity’s next industrial revolution. While reusable rockets have opened the door, true economic transformation requires infrastructure that makes orbit as accessible and reliable as air travel. At Lux Aeterna, we’re building that future by developing the first reusable satellite platform with controlled return capability - transforming space from a one-way street into a two-way highway for innovation and commerce.

The Opportunity

We are looking for a Senior Vehicle Engineer to own the vehicle at the mission level. Structures, GNC, flight software, propulsion, power, thermal, and ground each have an owner and must work together at the vehicle level. On your mission, you are the person who makes sure they add up to a spacecraft that launches, operates, returns, and flies again. You'll hold the vehicle-level requirements, budgets, and interfaces for your mission, you'll be the technical point of contact for customer payloads and the launch provider, and you'll be in the high bay when the hardware comes together.

This role is mission-focused by design. You start by owning one vehicle through flight and reflight. As the fleet grows, the role can grow with it into ownership of the product baseline for a vehicle line. This is a unique opportunity to:

• Own the vehicle-level technical baseline for your mission, from requirements through reflight
• Carry a full vehicle through design, integration, environmental test, launch, and return, then apply what you learn to our next-generation vehicles
• Help shape how Lux Aeterna does vehicle-level engineering as the company scales
• Work directly with the CEO and engineering leads on the decisions that shape the vehicle
• Grow into product-level ownership as the fleet grows, if that is where you want to take it

Why Lux Aeterna?

• Pioneering Technology: We're developing the first reusable satellite platform with controlled return capability, fundamentally transforming space from a one-way journey to a two-way highway
• Real Impact: Your work will enable new industries in space manufacturing, research, and logistics while pioneering sustainable space infrastructure
• Speed & Autonomy: We maintain parallel hardware development streams and empower engineers to innovate rapidly while upholding rigorous aerospace standards
• World-Class Team: Work alongside experts from leading aerospace companies and research institutions, building technology that will reshape humanity's access to space

The Role

You’ll be the engineer accountable for your mission's vehicle closing as a system, including:

• Owning the vehicle-level requirements for your mission and flowing them down to subsystems in a way that is traceable without being bureaucratic
• Owning and maintaining your vehicle's budgets: mass, power, link, pointing, thermal, propellant, and data, and driving margin decisions with the subsystem leads
• Owning interface control on your mission: between subsystems, between the vehicle and customer payloads, and between the vehicle and the launch provider
• Serving as the technical point of contact for your mission's payload customers from ICD through integration, test, and on-orbit operations
• Building and running the verification program for your vehicle: the requirements-to-test matrix, environmental test planning, and closure of every requirement before ship
• Leading mission-level trade studies and concept of operations development, and contributing to platform-level trades as they come up
• Running design reviews, failure investigations, and root cause analysis across disciplines
• Executing the requalification and reflight criteria for your vehicle and feeding what you learn back into the platform standard: what gets inspected, what gets replaced, and what has to be proven before a vehicle flies again
• Feeding mission operations with the vehicle knowledge the ops team needs to fly it

Required Qualifications

• BS in Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical Engineering, or a related field
• 7+ years of spacecraft engineering experience with at least one vehicle you helped take from design through launch
• Hands‑on experience owning a subsystem before stepping up to vehicle‑level work. You must have built hardware or deployed software for flight, not only managed requirements for it
• Working knowledge across the major spacecraft disciplines including structures, thermal, power, propulsion, GNC, avionics, and software, with the ability to advocate or push back against specific subsystem owners
• Experience writing and closing ICDs with payload customers and launch providers
• Experience planning and executing environmental test campaigns (vibration, thermal vacuum, EMI/EMC)
• Comfortable with first‑principles analysis and quick models when a full simulation isn’t warranted
• Clear written and verbal communication; you can explain a margin decision to a customer and a technician in the same afternoon
• Demonstrated ability to excel in dynamic, high‑stakes engineering environments

Desired Experience

• Reentry, reusable, or multi‑life hardware experience
• Rideshare integration experience (SpaceX Transporter or similar) and familiarity with launch provider requirements documents
• Experience with SMC‑S‑016, NASA GEVS, or equivalent verification standards
• Experience supporting mission operations or anomaly resolution on orbit
• Defense customer experience and an active or recent security clearance
• Early‑stage startup experience

We are based in Denver, CO and believe in the power of in‑person collaboration. We are onsite 5 days/week by default, but flexible when life requires it.

Compensation & Benefits

The anticipated base salary range for this position is $150k-$200k per year. Actual compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, skills, and job‑related responsibilities.

This position is also eligible for equity compensation, as applicable.

• medical, dental, and vision insurance
• paid time off and company holidays
• a 401(k) retirement plan

Application Deadline: October 29, 2026

This position requires U.S. citizenship and the ability to obtain and maintain a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) security clearance. The role involves access to export‑controlled technical data subject to the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR, 22 C.F.R. Parts 120 through 130) and the Export Administration Regulations (EAR, 15 C.F.R. Parts 730 through 774).