Mission Design Engineer SME

Mission Design Engineer – Subject Matter Expert (SME)

Location: Kennedy Space Center area, Florida

Remote/Telework: Primarily on-site/in-office

Clearance/Background Screening: Must successfully complete a U.S. government background investigation

Citizenship Requirement: U.S. Citizen or lawful permanent resident (Green Card holder)

Work Schedule: Full-time

Compensation: $150,000–$175,000 annually, depending on experience and qualifications

Relocation Assistance: May be available

Position Summary

Aegis Aerospace is seeking a Mission Design Engineer – Subject Matter Expert (SME) to support advanced spaceflight programs and mission concept development in the Kennedy Space Center area. This position provides expertise in mission architecture, trajectory and orbit design, spacecraft performance, and mission feasibility analysis.

The selected candidate will independently evaluate mission concepts, destination orbits, launch and transfer opportunities, spacecraft performance margins, and delivered-mass capability. The SME will also review technical assumptions and analyses developed by partner organizations and collaborate with propulsion, guidance, navigation and control (GN&C), power, thermal, communications, payload, structures, and other engineering disciplines to support integrated mission decisions.

Key Responsibilities

The candidate will:

• Perform mission design and architecture trade studies for lunar, cislunar, and other spaceflight missions.
• Develop and evaluate candidate trajectories, destination orbits, transfer strategies, launch opportunities, maneuver sequences, and mission timelines.
• Assess spacecraft and launch vehicle performance, including injection conditions, delta-V requirements, propellant consumption, delivered-mass capability, payload mass margins, and available launch performance.
• Evaluate mission concepts using appropriate performance margins, reserves, sensitivity studies, and uncertainty analyses to identify key drivers and technical risks.
• Perform trade studies addressing orbit selection, mission duration, spacecraft capability, propellant requirements, payload mass, operational complexity, and other mission constraints.
• Develop and execute independent trajectory and mission-analysis models to evaluate mission concepts and verify performance predictions.
• Review mission design analyses, models, assumptions, inputs, and results developed by partner organizations and identify gaps, sensitivities, limitations, and areas requiring additional analysis.
• Support analysis of rendezvous, proximity operations, docking, loiter, disposal, and other mission phases, as applicable.
• Collaborate across engineering disciplines to assess how subsystem capabilities and constraints affect overall mission feasibility, margins, and performance.
• Support the development and evaluation of mission-level requirements, constraints, verification approaches, and success criteria.
• Present mission trades, analysis results, performance margins, risks, and recommendations during technical reviews and decision forums.
• Develop or modify mission-analysis tools and scripts as needed to address new analysis problems efficiently.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related engineering discipline with at least eight years of relevant professional experience; or a master’s degree in one of these disciplines with at least five years of directly relevant professional experience in mission design, astrodynamics, trajectory analysis, spacecraft performance analysis, or related spaceflight engineering.
• Demonstrated depth of mission-design expertise and the ability to independently perform mission analyses and technical trade studies. Experience will be evaluated based on the scope, complexity, and relevance of the candidate’s mission-design responsibilities.
• Strong foundation in orbital mechanics, trajectory analysis, spacecraft dynamics, and mission performance analysis.
• Experience performing mission analyses involving one or more of the following: trajectory design, orbit selection, delta-V requirements, propellant requirements, launch performance, delivered mass, or spacecraft performance trades.
• Experience developing and using analytical or simulation tools to evaluate mission concepts and technical tradeoffs.
• Experience with mission-analysis tools or programming environments such as Copernicus, FreeFlyer, GMAT, STK/Astrogator, MATLAB, Python, or equivalent tools.
• Ability to independently analyze complex technical problems, identify critical assumptions and sensitivities, and develop technically defensible recommendations.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills and the ability to work effectively with multidisciplinary engineering teams.
• Must be a U.S. Citizen or lawful permanent resident (Green Card holder) and successfully complete a U.S. government background investigation.

Desired Qualifications

• Master’s degree or Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering, Astrodynamics, or a related discipline.
• Experience with lunar, cislunar, deep-space, or human spaceflight mission design.
• Experience evaluating launch vehicle performance, injection conditions, characteristic energy (C3), delivered mass, and payload performance margins.
• Experience assessing early mission concepts with evolving orbits, architectures, margins, and performance assumptions.
• Experience analyzing rendezvous, proximity operations, docking, loiter, or disposal mission phases.
• Experience independently evaluating or verifying trajectory and mission-performance analyses produced by other teams.
• Familiarity with NASA mission design, systems engineering, technical review, and verification practices.
• Experience working with commercial spacecraft or launch vehicle organizations.

About Aegis Aerospace

We are a woman-owned space and technology company headquartered in Houston, TX. Our primary objective is to support the Department of Defense and NASA in achieving their missions to defend the security of our country, reach new heights and to discover the unknown. We employ some of the brightest, most experienced engineering and technology experts in the U.S.

To learn more about Aegis Aerospace, visit our website at

Aegis Aerospace is an Equal Opportunity Employer /M/F/disability/protected veteran employer.

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