Spacecraft Lead - Director, Project Sunrise

Blue Origin; Kent (WA); On-site; USD 240,000 - 360,000; Full time

Job summary

Blue Origin is seeking a Spacecraft Lead - Director to serve as the primary technical authority for Sunrise spacecraft design. You will lead a multidisciplinary team, make critical design decisions, and own end-to-end spacecraft development from 0→1 and beyond.

This senior, hands-on leadership role requires expert systems thinking and coordination across propulsion, power, thermal, software, and communications.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering or related field.
• Experience coordinating multiple subsystems across propulsion, power, thermal, and GNC.
• Hands-on capability in spacecraft design and build (thermal, mechanical, software, or GNC).
• Proven experience mentoring junior engineers while remaining hands-on.
• Experience managing integrated roadmaps, milestones, risks, and critical paths.
• Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident, or eligible for status.

Responsibilities

• Deliver end-to-end flight hardware from concept to launch.
• Own development of propulsion, power, thermal, flight software, and communications.
• Define guidance, navigation, and control authority for launch to deployment.
• Lead verification and validation campaigns from component to system.
• Grow and manage a team of engineers.
• Collaborate with Compute Lead for integration of compute hardware and software.
• Present design concepts and technical recommendations to leadership.
• Own roadmap and product improvements for successive spacecraft.

Skills

GNC

Propulsion systems

Spacecraft hardware design

Flight software development

Systems engineering leadership

Mentoring

End-to-end spacecraft development

Jira

Confluence

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering or related field

Tools

Jira

Confluence

Job description

At Blue Origin, we envision millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. We're working to develop reusable, safe, and low-cost space vehicles and systems within a culture of safety, collaboration, and inclusion. Join our team of problem solvers as we add new chapters to the history of spaceflight!

This role is part of Advanced Concepts and Enterprise Engineering (ACE), supporting Blue Origin's mission of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. The team fosters innovation and drives engineering workflows of the future, shared solutions and standards, simplicity and lower costs, and manufacturable design.

Join Blue Origin as we build infrastructure in space for the benefit of Earth. We're developing a satellite constellation of orbital data centers to transform how compute infrastructure is deployed.

As the Spacecraft Lead - Director, you will serve as the primary technical authority and owner for the end-to-end design of the Sunrise spacecraft. You are a novel thinker, someone who does not rely solely on past experience, but finds new and innovative approaches to challenging engineering problems. You will be expected to operate with a high degree of autonomy, leading a multidisciplinary effort and making critical design decisions. This is a senior, hands-on leadership role that demands expert-level systems thinking, a deep understanding of engineering principles across multiple domains, and the ability to solve our most challenging technical problems while guiding a team of engineers. You will be responsible for leading an engineering team developing and deploying some of the largest and highest-power spacecraft ever built. The Spacecraft Lead manages the team developing the spacecraft design, its key subsystems, and software.

Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Deliver flight hardware end to end: concept development through manufacturing, integration, test, qualification, and launch, improving across successive spacecraft. Own the end-to-end spacecraft from 0->1 and then taking it 1->n.

• Own the development and manufacturing of propulsion, power, thermal management, flight software, and communication (optical data links, RF communications, etc.)
• Define and implement guidance, navigation, and control authority for the spacecraft from launch vehicle separation, deployment, collision avoidance, and demise.

• Develop and oversee the execution of verification and validation test campaigns for hardware, from component to system level.

• Move with decisive action to resolve critical trades, design decisions, manufacturing hurdles, and step in to execute technical scope when needed
• Design, build, and deliver spacecraft hardware and flight software.
• Own and determine make/buy decisions for the spacecraft.
• Grow and have direct management of a team of engineers
• Closely collaborate with the Compute Lead to ensure seamless integration of the compute hardware and associated software onto the spacecraft.

• Present design concepts, analysis results, and technical recommendations to program leadership and key stakeholders.
• As the program matures, own the roadmap and product improvements for successive spacecraft.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related discipline, or equivalent experience.
• Sufficient understanding of variety of spacecraft development disciplines, such as propulsion, communications, power, mechanisms, and GNC to coordinate development across multiple subsystem development teams
• Bring at least one hands on technical capability to the spacecraft design and build (e.g. thermal, mechanical, software, GNC, etc.)
• Comfortableleading and mentoring junior engineerswhile staying deeply hands-on
• Experience developing and managing integrated roadmaps, milestones, dependencies, risks, and critical paths.
• Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experiencewith all phases of the spacecraft development life cycle from rapidconcept development through design, qualification, production, test, launch, and flight operations.
• Experience developing high power spacecraft systems, large and flexible spacecraft structures, or large satellite constellations
• Software lifecycle and deployment experience.
• Experience formally leading an engineering team of 15+ members; preferred if also direct reports.
• Experience using tools such as Jira and Confluence to support planning, dependency management, and organizational reporting.
• Experience operating in a fast-paced development environment with evolving requirements and aggressive