Spacecraft Systems Engineer II

Firefly Aerospace; Cedar Park (TX); On-site; USD 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental, and vision plans

Parental leave

Flexible PTO options

Job summary

Firefly Aerospace in Cedar Park, Texas, is seeking a Spacecraft Systems Engineer to develop Blue Ghost and Elytra spacecraft, ensuring operational efficiency and reliability throughout the product lifecycle.

The ideal candidate will have over 4 years of hands-on project management experience in spacecraft, along with a BS in Aerospace Engineering. Exceptional communication skills and profound understanding of various engineering disciplines are essential for success in this role.

Firefly offers generous benefits, including health, dental, and vision plans, parental leave, and flexible PTO options.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of focused hands-on experience in project management on spacecraft.
• Firm comprehension of first principles in engineering disciplines.
• Strong working knowledge of the lunar surface environment and robotics.

Responsibilities

• Create and maintain system-level designs and performance budgets.
• Own requirements development and vehicle level test plans.
• Lead system-level trades and design reviews.

Skills

Interdisciplinary project management

Communication skills

Knowledge of ASME, MIL standards

Strong working knowledge of GNC analysis

Experience with Agile Project Management

Education

BS in Aerospace Engineering or related discipline

MS or PhD in Aerospace/Mechanical Engineering

Tools

Atlassian tools (JIRA, Confluence, Bitbucket)

Job description

Firefly Aerospace is a space and defense technology company that enables our world to launch, land, and operate in space – anywhere, anytime. As the partner of choice for critical space missions, Firefly is the only commercial company to launch a satellite to orbit with 24-hour notice and the only company to achieve a successful Moon landing. Our launch vehicles, lunar landers, and orbital vehicles provide government and commercial customers with full mission services from low Earth orbit to the Moon and beyond. Headquartered in north Austin, Texas, Firefly is looking for passionate, hardworking innovators to join our team and help fuel our successful trajectory into space.

SUMMARY

We welcome you to join Firefly as a Spacecraft Systems Engineer, to leverage your creative and technical expertise for the development of Blue Ghost and Elytra spacecraft over the product lifecycle from concept through fabrication, test & flight. You will work with design engineering, manufacturing, integration, test and launch teams to ensure the production of a thoroughly tested, operationally efficient and reliable vehicle that meets system level requirements. The Systems Engineering team is accountable for requirements, interfaces, and test planning - it will be your responsibility to validate the system architecture, manage technical budgets and design configuration between departments, develop test plans, ensure verification of requirements, and support mission operations. You will be expected to be able to speak knowledgeably about the current system configuration and provide status updates on performance, changes, schedule, and risks. It will be your job to translate program plan and engineering team’s vision into system level success. A successful candidate will be a self-starter, elevate their teammates and be passionate about the space industry.

RESPONSIBILITIES

To deliver a robust, reliable, and economical product successfully completing all mission requirements by...

• Creating and maintain system-level designs, schematics, interface control documents and performance budgets including fluid, electrical, and software architectures.
  • e.g. ICDs, ConOps, States & Modes, Sequence Diagrams, FBD, Boundary Diagrams, Grounding/Bonding Diagrams, Mass/Power/Link/dV/etc Budgets
• Owning requirements development/flowdown, subsystem interfaces, and vehicle level test plans. Reviewing all test plans for your vehicle.
• Leading system-level trades, design reviews, and data reviews for your vehicle.
  • Accountable for delivery of SRR, and PDR, responsible for providing critical inputs to CDR, MRR, TRR, and LRR.
• Being accountable for the resolution of any issue, failure, or NCR that impacts closure of your test plans. Includes root cause analysis and issuing of corrective actions.
• Facilitating the change control board, risk review board, deliverable tracking and effort estimates for your vehicle.
• Maintaining a strong rapport with the manufacturing and integration technicians, understanding their challenges and proposing upstream opportunities for improvement.
• Traveling to support offsite testing.
• Serving as surge capacity for the operations team during demanding missions and supporting 12 hour shifts during lunar mission operations.
• Maintaining calm under pressure, and fostering a positive, professional, and respectful working environment.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required

• BS in Aerospace Engineering or related engineering discipline required
• 4+ years of focused hands‑on experience in an interdisciplinary project management or execution role on spacecraft, equivalent work will be considered.
• Firm comprehension and demonstrated application of first principles in engineering disciplines (orbital mechanics, controls, mechanical, structural dynamics, electrical, mechatronics, materials, thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, and propulsion).
• Experience leading interdisciplinary project teams of including hardware and software engineers.
• Strong working knowledge of ASME, MIL, ASTM, and/or NASA Standards, as well as Systems Engineering best practices – able to adapt processes to meet the needs of the team.
• Exceptional communication (written and verbal), public speaking and presentation skills.
• Experience through the full lifecycle of a spacecraft mission from SRR to mission operations.
• Strong working knowledge of GNC analysis and cislunar mission planning.
• Strong working knowledge of the lunar surface environment and robotics.
• MS or PhD in Aerospace/Mechanical Engineering or equivalent technical field.
• Strong working knowledge of real time visual navigation systems for autonomous control.
• Experience designing spacecraft architectures or critical subsystems for reliability and radiation resiliency.
• Strong working knowledge of fabrication and assembly methodologies, production management tools, and quality control processes.
• Experience tailoring SMC/AFSPCM/91‑710 equivalent range documents; understanding, documenting and resolving the technical implications and risks associated with the tailoring.
• Experienced on Agile Project Management using Atlassian tools (JIRA, confluence, bitbucket)
• PMP or equivalent project management experience

Firefly offers outstanding benefits for our employees, including generous health, dental and vision plans with low plan deductibles, parental leave, educational reimbursement, short term disability, and flexible PTO options.

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Firefly Aerospace, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Firefly is governed based on merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.