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Staff Mission Lead Systems Engineer - General Verified today

Muon Space · Northern Virginia, VA · Space Systems · first seen 2026-07-24
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About the Role

Muon seeks a Staff Mission Lead Systems Engineer to join our Mission Execution team. You will partner with the Mission Architecture team during early mission formulation and study phases, shaping technical concepts, driving architecture trades, and developing requirements baselines. When a mission you helped formulate is selected for implementation, you become the Mission Lead Systems Engineer, owning end-to-end technical success from concept through on-orbit operations for high-reliability systems serving U.S. Government, Department of Defense, Intelligence Community, and select commercial customers.

In this role you have a full lifecycle view of mission execution, spanning initial formulation with Business Development, execution with space vehicle hardware and software teams, and on-orbit validation and performance monitoring with Operations. You serve as the primary technical interface with customers and cross-functional team leads to develop requirements and interface control documents, perform system modeling with other Systems Engineers, develop test plans with AI&T teams, and identify and reduce risk with Program Managers.

Success requires your ability to right-size analysis and processes for different levels of system maturity and risk, flexibility to work with changing demands and schedules, and effective communication of technical content to diverse audiences.

Responsibilities

  • Partner with Mission Architecture team during studies to develop mission concepts, run architecture trade studies, and shape technical baselines for prospective missions and proposal responses
  • Develop and maintain mission-level system models including architecture, requirements, interfaces, and behavior models as the authoritative technical baseline
  • Serve as ultimate technical authority for designated mission, leading conceptualization, design, and development; drive critical cross-functional technical trades and decisions
  • Lead tailoring and implementation of Muon mission design process for your mission, ensuring alignment with program needs and contributing to process refinement
  • Translate customer objectives and stakeholder needs into clear, verifiable, and actionable technical requirements
  • Serve as primary technical point of contact for your mission, interfacing with customers, partners, and internal stakeholders
  • Manage requirements traceability, verification, and validation
  • Define mission CONOPS and manage subsystem budgets (power, data, mass, pointing/stability)
  • Identify and mitigate internal and external mission risks, communicating impacts effectively
  • Assess and coordinate design changes across disciplines throughout program lifecycle
  • Lead design, test readiness, and flight readiness reviews
  • Monitor on-orbit spacecraft and data pipelines to ensure mission success and customer requirements are met
  • Foster collaboration with and provide technical direction to systems, hardware, software, data, ground segment, and operations teams
  • Serve as Mission Lead Systems Engineer for one mission while contributing systems engineering expertise to other Muon missions, potentially deputizing for other MLSEs
  • Contribute to continuous improvement of engineering processes, tools, and methodologies

Qualifications

  • B.S. or higher degree in engineering and 10+ years of experience in complex system, mission architecture, and/or spacecraft design with focus on high-rigor development for government and/or demanding commercial customers
  • Demonstrated experience as technical lead (Chief Engineer, Lead Systems Engineer) on at least one complex system design for USG, DoD, IC customers, and/or commercial customers
  • Experience with major space programs for USG, DoD, IC customers, and/or commercial customers
  • Experience with USG/IC acquisition programs, standards for space systems development, and mission assurance standards
  • Strong understanding of USG/IC contracts and their artifacts
  • Experience supporting proposal development (RFI/RFP responses) for government contracts
  • Extensive experience in system modeling, systems analysis, and running simulations
  • Proven history of system integration and delivery of complex systems
  • Experience in formal requirements management for multi-disciplinary projects
  • Demonstrated project management skills and ability to collaborate with other engineering disciplines
  • Excellent communication, presentation, and coordination skills
  • Ability to rapidly change roles and responsibilities in fast-paced environment
  • Active TS/SCI security clearance

Nice-to-Have Skills

  • Direct engineering experience with RF systems (RF payload/instrument design, link budget analysis, spectrum and regulatory considerations, mission-level RF architecture trades)
  • Experience with Cameo Systems Modeler or equivalent SysML MBSE tool to capture mission architecture, requirements, interfaces, and behavior
  • Software skills in Python or Julia
  • Familiarity with software engineering tools and processes (version control, code review)
  • Knowledge of industry standards for electrical and/or software quality practices
  • Remote sensing instrument experience across multiple modalities (optical, multispectral, RF) and their associated data pipelines

Compensation

Salary range: $177,000 to $246,000 plus competitive equity grant and comprehensive benefits package. Final compensation based on skills, qualifications, experience, and geographic location.

Location

Position has preference to sit near Northern VA/DC area.