Senior Satellite & Ground Systems Engineer Verified today

About the Role

The SpaceWrx division of Vantor is developing the next generation of satellite systems, ground infrastructure, and mission operations capabilities that enable responsive, high-performance commercial and national security space missions. The Mission Architecture & Systems Engineering (MASE) team provides technical leadership that transforms mission objectives into integrated, executable system designs spanning spacecraft, payloads, ground systems, software, communications, and operations.

You will lead and sustain systems engineering activities across multiple complex space and ground development programs and sustained operational capabilities. You are responsible for establishing and maintaining the technical foundation of our systems by defining mission concepts, developing Concepts of Operations (ConOps), capturing stakeholder needs, managing system requirements, developing high-level system architecture, and ensuring technical consistency from concept through verification and operational deployment.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead systems engineering across the complete systems engineering lifecycle, including concept development, architecture, design, implementation, integration, verification, validation, deployment, and sustainment.
• Develop mission concepts, Concepts of Operations (ConOps), operational scenarios, mission threads, and use cases.
• Elicit, decompose, allocate, and manage system requirements throughout the development lifecycle.
• Develop and maintain requirements traceability between stakeholder needs, use cases, system requirements, architecture, design artifacts, verification plans, and test results.
• Lead architecture development and high-level system design across hardware, software, and operational domains.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary engineering teams and technical subject matter experts to drive architecture, integration, analysis, and technical decision-making.
• Ensure mission objectives are translated into implementable designs and ultimately verified through successful system integration, test, and operations.
• Build consensus across engineering organizations and enable development teams to execute with clarity, speed, and technical rigor.

Minimum Qualifications

• U.S. Citizen
• Bachelor's degree in Systems Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Physics, or a related technical discipline.
• Minimum of 6 years of professional systems engineering experience supporting complex aerospace, defense, robotics, autonomous systems, or other multidisciplinary engineering programs.
• Demonstrated experience developing system architecture from stakeholder needs through implementation and verification.
• Experience developing Concepts of Operations (ConOps), operational scenarios, mission threads, and use cases.
• Experience eliciting, decomposing, allocating, and managing system requirements throughout the development lifecycle.
• Experience developing and maintaining requirements traceability between stakeholder needs, use cases, system requirements, architecture, design artifacts, verification plans, and test results.
• Working knowledge of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) methodologies and SysML.
• Experience participating in architecture development and high-level system design across hardware, software, and operational domains.
• Strong understanding of the complete systems engineering lifecycle, including concept development, architecture, design, implementation, integration, verification, validation, deployment, and sustainment.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively across multiple engineering disciplines and with technical subject matter experts.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate complex technical concepts to diverse engineering audiences.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, highly collaborative engineering environment while balancing multiple concurrent programs.

Preferred Qualifications

• 10 or more years of professional systems engineering experience supporting spacecraft, satellite constellations, remote sensing systems, ground systems, or mission operations.
• Experience leading systems engineering activities on end-to-end space systems including spacecraft, payloads, communications, ground infrastructure, and mission operations.
• Familiarity with inter-satellite communications including optical crosslink and R/F.
• Experience with MBSE tools such as Cameo Systems Modeler, Enterprise Architect, MagicDraw, or equivalent SysML environments.
• Familiarity and exposure to the Ansys engineering tool suite, including STK.
• Experience with requirements management tools such as IBM DOORS Next, Jama Connect, Polarion, or similar platforms.
• Experience performing functional analysis, interface definition, and system decomposition.
• Experience developing system interface definitions and Interface Control Documents (ICDs).
• Familiarity with digital engineering practices and model-centric development environments and their use across the development lifecycle.
• Experience supporting formal systems engineering reviews including SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, and SVR.
• Experience planning or supporting system verification and validation activities, including development of verification methods, test plans, and verification matrices.
• Working knowledge of systems engineering standards such as ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288, the INCOSE Systems Engineering Handbook, or the NASA Systems Engineering Handbook.
• Experience supporting agile or iterative development environments while maintaining disciplined systems engineering practices.
• Familiarity with configuration management and engineering change processes.
• Experience with Git, Jira, Confluence, or similar engineering collaboration and development tools.

Compensation and Benefits

Base pay for this position within Colorado is $109,000.00 - $145,000.00 - $159,500.00 annually. For all other states, geographic cost of labor is used to develop market-driven ranges.

This position is incentive eligible with a target based on contribution, company performance, and/or individual results achieved.

Vantor offers a competitive total rewards package including a robust 401(k) with company match, mental health resources, student loan repayment assistance, adoption reimbursement, and pet insurance.