Space Ground Station Mission Architect (Customer-Facing)

Northwood Space; Washington; On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Northwood Space is a modern space infrastructure company building a global ground-station network. We’re seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to work with satellite operators, shape requirements, and guide deployments from first conversation through integration and post‑deployment support.

You’ll partner with BD, Engineering and PM, translate mission needs into priorities for internal teams, and build reusable discovery materials.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in customer-facing technical roles such as solutions or systems engineering, mission operations, or technical business development.
• Bachelor’s in EE, CE, CS, Aerospace, or related field, or equivalent experience in mission systems, ground systems, or satellite operations.
• Proven track record taking complex engagements from discovery through deployment or expansion.
• Strong ability to translate customer needs into concrete technical priorities.

Responsibilities

• Make customer missions succeed on Northwood’s network.
• Serve as the primary technical contact for customers during capture, onboarding, and post-deployment.
• Get hands-on with implementation and integration alongside customers and Engineering.
• Ship code, debug integrations, and validate operations with customers and Engineering.
• Support Business Development on qualification, proposals, and expansion.
• Lead technical discovery, exchanges, demos, and readiness reviews with Program Management.
• Learn each customer’s mission, workflows, constraints, and success metrics in depth.
• Translate customer needs into clear priorities for Engineering, Product, and BD.
• Surface adoption friction and recurring needs to shape product and network.
• Coordinate onboarding and deployment readiness with clear requirements and risk flags.
• Build reusable discovery frameworks and customer-facing materials to scale capture.

Skills

Customer-facing engineering

Solutions architecture

Mission operations

Technical communication

Travel readiness

Education

Bachelor's in EE/CE/CS/Aerospace or related field

Job description

Northwood Space is a modern space infrastructure company building a global ground-station network. We’re seeking a Forward Deployed Engineer to work with satellite operators, shape requirements, and guide deployments from first conversation through integration and post‑deployment support.

You’ll partner with BD, Engineering and PM, translate mission needs into priorities for internal teams, and build reusable discovery materials.