An RF engineer who has taken a system from an idea on paper all the way to flight is rare. Rare enough that we could put that person forward to three of our clients and expect three offers. That’s flight heritage. Many engineers have the experience, but it’s not clear from their resumes. And others are closer to it than they realize.
How does a hiring manager choose between two RF engineers with the same skill set at the offer stage? Often, it comes down to what they’ve built that’s in space right now.
What Is Flight Heritage?
Flight heritage means hardware or software has already flown in space and done its job. Engineers measure this on NASA’s Technology Readiness Level (TRL) scale, which runs from 1, where the basic science has been observed, to 9, an “actual system flight proven through successful mission operations.” TRL 8 is one step short: qualified through testing, but not yet flown.
In hiring, flight heritage is shorthand for engineers who have taken their work from early design all the way to orbit. Hiring managers want to know what you owned and how far it got. That matters more to them than your job title or your employer.
Why Do Space Hiring Managers Care About Flight Heritage?
Once something launches, you can’t send an engineer up to fix it. Ground testing gets close, but some stresses can only be fully validated in orbit.
Engineers who have seen their work through to flight know which problems tend to surface just before launch, because they’ve lived through the late design changes and test failures themselves. Companies want that experience, and the engineers who have it rarely need to look for a new job. They’re usually in good roles at good companies, often with equity they’d be leaving behind.
Why Doesn’t a Big Name on Your Resume Prove It?
Hiring managers notice a big name on a resume. The important thing is what you built there, and whether any of it flew.
Some of our startup clients ask for engineers from SpaceX or another big name, partly because it reassures their investors. But large teams split the work into narrow pieces. You can spend years on one part of one subsystem, even in a senior role.
Technical leads at bigger companies also aren’t always as hands-on as their startup counterparts, especially once they start managing people. A startup hiring its first engineers needs someone who can lead a technical area and build the product.
If you’re at a large company with stock still vesting, weigh a move to a startup on what you’d own there, as well as what you’d leave behind.
How Do You Show Flight Heritage on Your Resume?
If you’ve done the work, make sure it’s visible on your resume. Here’s how:
Lead With What You Owned
Job titles vary so much between companies that they don’t mean much without context. When we search for RF engineers by title, we get telecom engineers too, so we search by what people have done. Hiring managers read your resume the same way. Under each role, start with the system or subsystem you were responsible for.
Show How Far It Got
Name the stages you took your work through, from design and build to test, integration, launch and operations. If it flew, say so, and say whether it’s still operating. If the program stopped before launch, say how far you got.
Say Whether You Led or Supported
Jules Haehn, a former principal technical recruiter at Vast, has some great resume advice for space engineers. He asks candidates: “Did you play a leading or supporting role in your projects?” Both are worth listing. Just make the difference clear, because a hiring manager will ask. Verbs like “owned” and “led” read differently from “supported” and “contributed to”.
Put a Number on It
Haehn says most of your bullet points should include a metric. In space, that could be how many test campaigns you ran, or how long your hardware has been operating in orbit. Compare these two lines:
- “RF Engineer, satellite communications team”
- “Led the RF design for a communications payload from early design through testing and launch. It’s been operating in orbit for two years.”
The second one tells the hiring manager what they want to know before they ask.
Add a Portfolio
Keep your resume short. Haehn suggests a separate portfolio with one or two slides per project, covering the objectives, requirements, your contribution, the results and what you learned. It gives you room for detail that won’t fit on a resume.
Stay Inside Your NDA
A lot of space work is covered by export controls or non-disclosure agreements. You can usually describe your role and how far the work got without naming the customer or sharing technical detail. If you’re not sure, check with your current employer what you’re allowed to say.
Look Beyond Your Day Job
If your current role only covers a narrow slice of a system, look for other proof. Time on a small, fast-moving team, or something you built on your own time, is evidence you can own more than your job description. Haehn also recommends adding side projects to your portfolio.
What If Your Experience Stops Short of Flight?
Maybe your program was cancelled before launch, or you haven’t been on one long enough to see it fly. You’re still in the running for plenty of space roles.
In small talent pools, some hiring managers know that asking for an exact match will cost them candidates. They’ll look at engineers who cover most of what the role needs, especially when you can learn the missing skills on the job.
If you haven’t seen a system through to flight yet, lead with the furthest stage you reached: qualification testing, integration, or a program that got to TRL 8 before it stopped. Then look for a role where you’ll own a system all the way to launch. That’s more likely at a smaller company, where teams are lean and engineers cover more of the lifecycle. It’s also where a step up into a lead or principal role tends to come sooner.
Make Your Flight Heritage Easy to Find
Flight heritage is proof that something you worked on made it to orbit and did its job. A hiring manager won’t see that from your job title or a company name, so spell it out on your resume.
If you’re thinking about where that experience could take you next, take a look at the space roles we’re hiring for right now.