Senior Spacecraft Systems Engineer - Payload

Please Note: To conform with the United States Government Space Technology Export Regulations, the applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., conditional resident, asylee or refugee (protected individuals as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3)), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

At CesiumAstro, we are developers and pioneers of out-of-the-box communication systems for satellites, UAVs, launch vehicles, and other space and airborne platforms. We take pride in our dynamic and cross-functional work environment, which allows us to learn, develop, and engage across our organization. If you are looking for hands-on, interactive, and autonomous work, CesiumAstro is the place for you. We are actively seeking passionate, collaborative, energetic, and forward-thinking individuals to join our team.

ESSENTIAL ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES - Analyze customer, mission, and system-level requirements and decompose them into clear, verifiable system and subsystem requirements.

- Establish clear definitions for all hardware and software interfaces between the payload and the space vehicle

- Ensure requirements maintain end-to-end traceability to customer requirements, system architecture, and Concept of Operations (CONOPS).

- Define and manage hardware, software, electrical, mechanical, and data interfaces between system elements.

- Collaborate with cross-functional engineering teams to refine requirements for completeness, feasibility, technical accuracy, and manufacturability.

- Support requirements management, configuration management, baseline control, and engineering change activities.

- Identify technical risks, requirement gaps, ambiguities, and design issues early in the development lifecycle.

- Support system architecture development, technical trade studies, and engineering analyses to evaluate design alternatives and optimize system performance.

- Develop system verification and validation strategies, including verification methods (test, analysis, demonstration, and inspection), acceptance criteria, and verification levels aligned with program requirements.

- Define verification configurations, including hardware, software, firmware, and test environments required to support verification activities.

- Develop and maintain verification documentation, verification cross-reference matrices (VCRM), requirements traceability matrices, and verification evidence packages.

- Partner with Integration & Test teams to plan, coordinate, and support system integration and verification activities.

- Evaluate test results, resolve technical discrepancies, and support corrective actions to ensure compliance with system requirements.

- Support technical planning, Program Increment (PI) planning, staffing assessments, and engineering execution activities.

- Prioritize systems engineering activities to meet technical, cost, schedule, and program milestones.

- Participate in technical reviews, design reviews, customer meetings, and engineering milestone activities.

- Mentor junior engineers on systems engineering best practices, requirements development, traceability, verification, and technical documentation.

- Drive continuous improvement of engineering processes, systems engineering rigor, and technical documentation.

- Collaborate across multidisciplinary engineering teams to support successful program execution.

- Perform additional duties and responsibilities as assigned.

JOB REQUIREMENTS AND MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS - Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Physics, or a related technical discipline with typically 5–8 years of relevant experience; Master’s degree in a related technical discipline with typically 3–6 years of relevant experience; or PhD in a related technical discipline with typically 0–3 years of relevant experience.

- Strong knowledge of sy