• Location: Adams County, Colorado
• Remote: Hybrid
• Type: Permanent
• Job #8143
• Salary: NON 160,000

Systems / Electronics Engineer – Spacecraft & Optical Payloads

 

? Denver, Colorado

? Hybrid: Office Tuesday–Thursday, remote Monday and Friday

?? Spacecraft | Optical Payloads | Satellite Electronics

 

? U.S. citizenship and active Secret clearance, or ability to obtain one, required

A leading commercial satellite imagery and geospatial intelligence organization is hiring a Systems / Electronics Engineer to support the development of its next-generation Earth observation satellite constellation.

 

This is a broad systems engineering position with a strong electronics focus. You will work across spacecraft platforms, high-performance optical payloads, laser communications, onboard processing, and the wider systems required to turn satellite data into operational imagery products.

 

The team owns the complete development lifecycle, including mission and system architecture, requirements, supplier coordination, manufacturing, integration, testing, launch, and initial on-orbit operations.

 

What You’ll Be Doing

• Own the technical interface between the imaging payload and spacecraft bus.
• Ensure compatibility and optimize performance across electrical, mechanical, thermal, timing, and data interfaces.
• Lead and support system-level trade studies covering performance, cost, technical risk, and technology insertion.
• Model and evaluate payload power, data-volume, timing, and electrical interactions.
• Develop and maintain electrical Interface Control Documents and other system design documentation.
• Evaluate emerging technologies, commercial hardware, flight-ready components, and new mission concepts.
• Assess the system-level integration feasibility of new electronics and payload technologies.
• Support major technical reviews, including SRR, PDR, and CDR.
• Work with spacecraft, payload, ground, software, and mission teams to ensure system performance and reliability.
• Interpret schematics, block diagrams, and PCB layouts to understand the system-level impact of hardware changes.
• Troubleshoot payload and spacecraft electronics, potentially down to circuit level depending on experience.

 

What We’re Looking For

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Physics, or a related technical discipline.
• At least three years of experience supporting space-based optical remote sensing payloads or comparable complex hardware systems.
• Experience developing and managing interfaces between spacecraft and payload systems.
• Strong understanding of electrical interfaces and cross-functional spacecraft integration.
• Experience developing specifications, requirements, and Interface Control Documents.
• Ability to interpret electrical schematics, system block diagrams, and PCB layouts.
• Experience assessing the broader system implications of component-level or circuit-level design changes.
• Working knowledge of MATLAB and Python, with the ability to quickly learn additional engineering tools.
• Familiarity with modern electronics technologies, including FPGAs, processors, memory, and data-storage devices.
• Experience working across payload, spacecraft, software, ground, and operational teams.
• Strong technical communication and multidisciplinary collaboration skills.

 

Particularly Valuable Experience

• Master’s degree or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Systems Engineering, Physics, or a related field.
• Electrical systems engineering experience on spacecraft or other space platforms.
• Radiation-effects analysis, parts derating, component qualification, or radiation-tolerant electronics.
• Optical imaging payloads, including visible, multispectral, or hyperspectral systems.
• Understanding of imaging performance metrics such as signal-to-noise ratio and modulation transfer function.
• STK, SPICE, HFSS, signal-integrity tools, or power-integrity analysis software.
• Laser communications or high-rate spacecraft data systems.
• Fault management, redundancy architectures, and reliability engineering for long-duration missions.
• Familiarity with NASA, JPL, ECSS, MIL-STD-1547, IPC, or comparable space-industry standards.
• Experience supporting spacecraft manufacturing, integration, environmental testing, launch, or early on-orbit operations.

 

This is an opportunity to work on highly integrated satellite systems where electronics, payload performance, spacecraft design, and mission capability are closely connected.

 

The successful engineer will combine strong systems thinking with practical electronics knowledge and will be comfortable moving between high-level architecture, interface definition, detailed hardware analysis, and hands-on troubleshooting.

• Location: Adams County, Colorado
• Remote: Hybrid
• Type: Permanent
• Job #8141
• Salary: NON 160,000

Principal Satellite Systems Engineer

 

A leading Earth-observation and space technology company is hiring a Principal Satellite Systems Engineer to support the development and delivery of next-generation satellite systems.

 

This role will take technical ownership of satellite bus procurement and supplier oversight, working with external spacecraft vendors from initial requirements and design reviews through integration, environmental testing, launch, and on-orbit operations.

 

The Role

• Lead technical interactions with satellite bus suppliers and manage design or performance issues.
• Develop statements of work, bus specifications, system requirements, and verification criteria.
• Review spacecraft designs, ICDs, analysis packages, integration plans, and test reports.
• Evaluate vendor responses to RFIs and RFPs.
• Confirm that supplier hardware and software meet mission, payload, and environmental requirements.
• Support payload-to-bus integration across power, data, thermal, structural, RF, timing, and software interfaces.
• Oversee qualification for LEO environments, including radiation, thermal, structural, and EMI/EMC considerations.

 

What We’re Looking For

• Approximately 5–12 years of aerospace or satellite systems engineering experience.
• End-to-end spacecraft programme experience, from architecture through assembly, integration, testing, and on-orbit operations.
• Experience owning the design, analysis, qualification, or verification of a satellite bus or complete spacecraft.
• Strong requirements development, decomposition, traceability, and verification experience.
• Proven subcontractor or spacecraft-vendor oversight experience.
• Strong knowledge of LEO environments and their impact on spacecraft performance.
• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, aerospace, physics, or a related technical field.

 

Particularly Relevant Experience

• Earth-observation satellite programmes
• Satellite bus lead or spacecraft lead systems engineering
• RF communications, radios, transmitters, or transceivers
• Mission data recorders and space-qualified memory
• Precision timing systems
• Encryption hardware or IP cores
• Satellite flight-software architecture
• Space-based edge computing or AI processing
• Optical crosslink terminals
• Environmental qualification and test oversight

 

This is a broad, highly visible role suited to an experienced systems engineer who can combine deep spacecraft knowledge with strong supplier management and technical decision-making.

The position includes a competitive base salary, annual incentive, comprehensive benefits, and the opportunity to work on advanced Earth-observation missions.

• Location: Adams County, Colorado
• Remote: Hybrid
• Type: Permanent
• Job #8140
• Salary: NON 160,000

Satellite & Ground Systems Engineer

 

A rapidly growing space and geospatial technology organization is hiring an experienced Satellite & Ground Systems Engineer to support the development and operation of next-generation satellite systems, ground infrastructure, and mission operations capabilities.

 

This is a highly technical systems engineering position-not a documentation-focused role. You will help translate complex mission objectives into integrated and executable system designs spanning spacecraft, payloads, communications, software, ground systems, and operational environments.

 

You will work across the full systems engineering lifecycle, from early mission architecture and requirements development through integration, verification, deployment, and sustained operations.

 

What You’ll Be Doing

• Develop mission concepts, Concepts of Operations, operational scenarios, mission threads, and use cases.
• Translate stakeholder and customer objectives into clear system requirements and architectures.
• Elicit, decompose, allocate, manage, and maintain requirements across complex multidisciplinary systems.
• Develop high-level architectures spanning spacecraft, payloads, communications, ground infrastructure, software, and mission operations.
• Maintain traceability between stakeholder needs, requirements, architecture, interfaces, verification plans, and test results.
• Perform functional analysis, system decomposition, interface definition, and technical trade studies.
• Partner with hardware, software, spacecraft, payload, ground, communications, and operations teams.
• Support system integration, verification, validation, deployment, and operational sustainment.
• Contribute to formal engineering reviews including SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, and SVR.
• Drive technical decisions and ensure consistency across multiple concurrent development programs.

 

What We’re Looking For

• Bachelor’s degree in Systems Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Physics, or a related discipline.
• At least six years of systems engineering experience within aerospace, defense, robotics, autonomous systems, or another complex multidisciplinary environment.
• Experience developing system architecture from stakeholder needs through implementation and verification.
• Strong experience developing ConOps, mission scenarios, use cases, and operational threads.
• Experience managing system requirements, allocation, decomposition, and traceability.
• Understanding of the complete systems engineering V-model and system development lifecycle.
• Working knowledge of Model-Based Systems Engineering and SysML.
• Experience working across hardware, software, interfaces, and operational domains.
• Strong technical communication and cross-functional collaboration skills.
• Ability to balance multiple complex programs within a fast-paced engineering environment.

 

Particularly Valuable Experience

• Ten or more years supporting spacecraft, satellite constellations, remote sensing systems, ground systems, or mission operations.
• Leadership of systems engineering activities across end-to-end space systems.
• Satellite communications, RF links, or optical inter-satellite crosslinks.
• Cameo Systems Modeler, MagicDraw, Enterprise Architect, or similar MBSE tools.
• STK or other tools within the Ansys engineering suite.
• DOORS Next, Jama Connect, Polarion, or comparable requirements management platforms.
• Development of interface definitions and Interface Control Documents.
• Digital engineering and model-centric development environments.
• Verification planning, verification matrices, test planning, and system validation.
• ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288, INCOSE, or NASA systems engineering practices.
• Git, Jira, Confluence, configuration management, and engineering change processes.

 

The successful candidate will combine architectural thinking with practical engineering execution. You should be comfortable owning complex technical problems, building alignment between engineering disciplines, and helping development teams move quickly without sacrificing traceability or technical rigor.

 

This is an opportunity to play a central role in shaping resilient satellite and ground systems designed for demanding commercial and national security missions.

 

Candidates must be U.S. citizens due to the nature of the programs and applicable U.S. export-control requirements.