Senior Vehicle & Mission Operations Engineer Verified today

The Role

From day one, you'll be hands-on with K2's integrated satellite-level test campaign, diving deep into the K2 bus. Within your first few months, you'll help define how the company operates its first mission, shaping the tools, systems, and philosophy behind Mission Operations. As you move toward launch, you'll be at the heart of operations.

Over the following year, your impact will grow: evolving the playbook from that first mission, scaling it to support multi-satellite operations, and pioneering the systems needed for full constellation control. The path to operating dozens or hundreds of satellites will be yours to help chart.

Responsibilities

• Define and operationalize Mission Operations concept for the first satellite mission, including procedures, tools, and real-time support systems
• Develop telemetry monitoring strategies, fault response frameworks, and command plans for pre-launch, LEOP, and nominal operations
• Collaborate closely with systems, software, and hardware teams to ensure operational readiness across all spacecraft subsystems
• Drive the roadmap for mission operations tooling, ground segment workflows, and long-term constellation management
• Serve as a key operator during on-orbit operations, responsible for real-time decision-making and coordination
• Operate spacecraft (interpret telemetry, send commands) during system tests at the factory, test facilities, launch sites, and during pre-launch operations
• Interface with customers to scope testing performed on their payloads, based on expected functions and failure modes of interest
• Assess risks associated with different integration and test approaches, justify test reductions and optimize vehicle build/test flows for at-rate production

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in electrical, aerospace, mechanical, computer, or other relevant engineering discipline
• 1+ years of operating satellites on-orbit
• 5+ years of experience in an operations/integration/automation engineering role
• Experience testing and troubleshooting spacecraft and their related components and systems, including subsystem checkouts and system acceptance testing
• Familiarity with mission operations concepts such as LEOP, telemetry, commanding, fault protection, and anomaly resolution
• Experience building or contributing to custom tooling for telemetry, analysis, data pipelines, or operational dashboards
• Background in designing or scaling operational architectures for fleets or constellations