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Staff Mission Lead Systems Engineer - EO / IR Systems Verified today

Muon Space · Northern Virginia, VA · Space Systems · first seen 2026-10-10
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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 help formulate is selected for implementation, you become the Mission Lead Systems Engineer, owning end-to-end technical success from concept through on-orbit operations.

You will have a full lifecycle view spanning mission design from initial formulation with Business Development, through execution with hardware and software teams, to on-orbit validation and mission performance monitoring with Operations. You are the primary technical interface with customers and cross-functional team leads to develop requirements and ICDs, perform system modeling, develop test plans with AI&T teams, and identify and reduce risk across the program.

Success in this role 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.

Key Responsibilities

  • Partner with Mission Architecture team during study efforts to develop mission concepts, run architecture trade studies, and shape technical baselines for prospective missions
  • Develop and maintain mission-level system models including architecture, requirements, interfaces, and behavior models
  • Serve as the ultimate technical authority for your designated mission, leading conceptualization, design, and development
  • Lead tailoring and implementation of the Muon mission design process for your mission
  • 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
  • Assess and coordinate design changes across disciplines throughout the 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
  • Provide technical direction to systems, hardware, software, data, ground segment, and operations teams
  • Contribute to continuous improvement of engineering processes, tools, and methodologies

Required Qualifications

  • B.S. or higher degree in an engineering field
  • 8+ 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
  • Direct engineering experience with EO/IR and/or RF systems, including payload/instrument design, link budget analysis, spectrum and regulatory considerations, and mission-level architecture trades
  • Demonstrated experience as a technical lead (Chief Engineer, Lead Systems Engineer) on at least one complex system design for USG, DoD, IC, and/or commercial customers
  • Experience with major space programs for USG, DoD, IC, 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 a multi-disciplinary project
  • 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 while working in a fast-paced environment
  • Active TS/SCI security clearance

Nice-to-Have Skills

  • Experience with Cameo Systems Modeler or equivalent SysML MBSE tool
  • 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 associated data pipelines

Compensation and Benefits

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.

Full-time employees receive medical, dental, and vision insurance, 401k retirement plan, short and long term disability and life insurance, three weeks paid vacation, 12 paid holidays, unlimited sick time, and paid parental leave.