Principal Mission Architect

About the role

Muon seeks a Principal Mission Architect and mission formulation lead to join our mission development team to help direct the development of new mission architectures, with a focus on opportunities outside the United States. The ideal candidate is a self-motivated versatile engineer who can work with international customers to identify their true needs, manage a team of engineers to develop a cost-effective solution, and perform a range of mission-level analyses, develop requirements, and design a practical and cost-effective space mission.

This position can be performed remotely from an approved location.

Responsibilities

• Develop a complete mission concept based on customer needs
• Perform mission-level analysis and own all top-level mission budgets
• Requirements definition and design for the mission and a variety of mission payloads
• Leverage software tools and/or writing code to explore engineering trade studies and answer system design questions
• Understands key metrics and spacecraft and payload design trades, and can work effectively with Muon’s instrument design team
• Perform spacecraft performance and constellation configuration evaluation
• Collaborate with other discipline engineers and scientists to ensure the product meets objectives
• Regular international travel (30%) to support solution development and international business opportunities.

Qualifications

• B.S. or higher degree in a related engineering field plus 12 years of experience working with space missions. Higher-level degrees count for 2 years experience each if they are in relevant topics.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and coordination skills
• Dedication to drawing conclusions based on the most important factors and data available
• Spacecraft design experience
• Space mission design experience
• Software skills in one or more of Python, Julia, Matlab, C, C++
• Travel to the Mountain View facility to support in-person meetings, build, and test
• Excited to work in a fast-paced environment with new challenges each week

Nice-to-have Skills

• Experience with international space programs
• Experience supporting science teams to develop missions
• Experience designing constellations
• Spacecraft and/or constellation operations experience