Staff Mission Architect Engineer

Northrop Grumman; Colorado Springs (CO); On-site; USD 161,000 - 241,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance

Job summary

Northrop Grumman Space Systems seeks an experienced Space Mission Architect to act as SME and customer interface for a growing space security mission. You will lead planning, design, and risk-reduction activities with government customers and internal teams.

The role requires on-site work up to 100% due to security constraints and the ability to pass an enhanced security review. Strong leadership and propulsion/trajectory knowledge are essential.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering or STEM with 12+ years in related engineering fields.
• Requires an active Top-Secret SCI clearance at time of application.
• Understanding of rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) and dynamic satellite trajectories.
• Experience operating satellite systems in a dynamic environment.
• Experience with scripting languages and modeling tools (STK, Freeflyer, Python, STOL).
• Experience presenting briefing slides to senior leaders and executives.

Responsibilities

• Envision end state of the Mission Execution Planning Team against dynamic priorities.
• Lead design, planning, and execution of mission risk-reduction activities with customers.
• Lead a team of 3–5 mission engineers supporting planning and execution tasks.
• Bridge program, customer, and end-user to ensure operational capability meets objectives.
• Support modeling and simulation of risk-reduction activities and generate reports.
• Represent program as SME in space vehicle hardware configuration and trajectory flight safety.
• Assess systems effectiveness based on constellation design and ground/enterprise capabilities.
• Recommend actions to address gaps in systems effectiveness.
• Educate leads, customers, and engineers on mission capability and CONOPS.
• Perform trades, modeling, simulation to evaluate architecture alternatives for customer missions.
• Brief and lead technical meetings for senior leaders across the space community.

Skills

RPO knowledge

Mission planning

Team leadership

Space hardware

Python scripting

Education

Bachelor's degree in engineering or STEM

Tools

STK

FreeFlyer

Python

STOL

Job description

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be available

CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: Yes

CLEARANCE TYPE: SCI

TRAVEL: Yes, 10% of the Time

Description

At Northrop Grumman, our employees have incredible opportunities to work on revolutionary systems that impact people’s lives around the world today, and for generations to come. Our pioneering and inventive spirit has enabled us to be at the forefront of many technological advancements in our nation's history - from the first flight across the Atlantic Ocean, to stealth bombers, to landing on the moon. We look for people who have bold new ideas, courage and a pioneering spirit to join forces to invent the future, and have fun along the way. Our culture thrives on intellectual curiosity, cognitive diversity and bringing your whole self to work — and we have an insatiable drive to do what others think is impossible. Our employees are not only part of history, they’re making history.

Northrop Grumman Space Systems is looking for an experienced space mission architect to be the subject matter expert and customer interface for a rapidly growing space security mission. This subject matter expert will serve as the Execution Planning Team Lead, working collaboratively with government customers and operators to demonstrate and develop plans to increase the effectiveness of the capabilities. This expert will have knowledge of dynamic satellite operations and Rendezvous Proximity and Operations (RPO) with preferred experience executing the missions on orbit. This candidate will closely work with the On-Orbit Test Team, Systems Engineering and Integration IPT lead, and nominal and campaign operations team to plan, deconflict, and execution risk reduction activities for system effectiveness. The Mission Execution Planning Team Lead will represent the program at government operations site, engaging with senior leaders across multiple government organizations.

This position requires up to 100% on-site work due security constraints and the ability to pass an enhanced security review.

You Will Be Responsible For

• Being self-directed and able to envision the end state of the Mission Execution Planning Team against dynamic priorities and objectives in support of system effectiveness evaluations
• Lead and represent the team in the design, planning, and execution of mission enabling risk reduction activities with customer and end user community
• Lead and task a team of 3-5 mission engineers responsible for supporting the design, planning, and execution of activities within the end user community.
• Build a bridge and trusted partnership between program, the customer, and the end user community to ensure the capability delivered to the operational environment achieves mission objectives
• Support modeling and simulation of risk reduction activities with simulation capabilities and generate reports and assessments in support of on-orbit execution
• Represent the program as a subject matter expert in space vehicle hardware configuration and trajectory flight safety in support of activity readiness reviews and recommendations
• Support assessments of systems effectiveness based on constellation design, space vehicle capability, ground system capability, and enterprise integrations
• Recommend to the program and the customer courses of actions to address gaps in systems effectiveness
• Educate leads, customers, and engineers on mission capability, analysis, and CONOPS
• Performs system-of-system trades, modeling, simulation and analysisto assess space mission architecture alternatives for delivering a customer mission effect, data or capability as it fits within a broader campaign
• Brief and lead technical meetings for senior leaders across the space community

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering or other STEM related degree with 12 years of experience in a related engineering field such as mechanical, electrical, aerospace and/or operations; 10 years with a Master's; 9 years with a PhD
• Requires an active Top-Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) clearance at time of application
• Understanding of rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) and the design of dynamic satellite trajectories against constraints, restraints, and objectives
• Experience operating satellite systems in a dynamic environment
• Experience in scripting languages and modeling tools (e.g. STK, Freeflyer, Python, STOL, etc)
• Experience with developing and presenting briefing slides to senior leaders and executive level personnel

Preferred Qualifications

• Direct, practical experience with RPO missions and the underpinning algorithms with knowledge of operations and planning
• Understanding of the interplay between various national security customers and products
• Prior aerospace-related work experience for a U.S Government Agency or Contractor
• Previous experience with flight hardware on operational systems

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Primary Level Salary Range: $161,000.00 - $241,400.00

The above salary range represents a general guideline; however, Northrop Grumman considers a number of factors when determining base salary offers such as the scope and responsibilities of the position and the candidate's experience, education, skills and current market conditions.

Depending on the position, employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay. Annual bonuses are designed to reward individual contributions as well as allow employees to share in company results. Employees in Vice President or Director positions may be eligible for Long Term Incentives. In addition, Northrop Grumman provides a variety of benefits including health insurance coverage, life and disability insurance, savings plan, Company paid holidays and paid time off (PTO) for vacation and/or personal business.

The application period for the job is estimated to be 20 days from the job posting date. However, this timeline may be shortened or extended depending on business needs and the availability of qualified candidates.

Northrop Grumman is an Equal Opportunity Employer, making decisions without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected class. For our complete EEO and pay transparency statement, please visit http://www.northropgrumman.com/EEO. U.S. Citizenship is required for all positions with a government clearance and certain other restricted positions.