Spacecraft Engineer
hace 3 días
London
Position: Space System Architect Location: London, UK or Luxembourg Department: Engineering Reports To: Spacecraft Program Manager / Engineering Director OUTSIDE IR35 Role Overview The System Architect is a key leadership role responsible for the technical success of spacecraft missions. The role involves defining mission architectures, managing system-level engineering activities, and coordinating multidisciplinary teams across spacecraft, ground segment, launch, and in-orbit operations. The successful candidate will act as the technical authority for the mission, ensuring that system requirements, interfaces, budgets, and risks are properly managed throughout the entire mission lifecycle. This role requires a highly experienced leader with strong technical expertise in spacecraft engineering, program management, and stakeholder coordination. Key Responsibilities Mission Architecture and System Design • Define and analyse overall mission architectures., • Identify, analyse, and derive technical, programmatic, and business requirements, constraints, and assumptions impacting mission development., • Ensure system requirements are defined, structured, and traced according to ECSS-N-10 (Technical Requirements Specification Standard), widely used by European space agencies and industry primes for spacecraft system definition and engineering., • Manage the technical baseline and assess impacts of design changes and non-conformances across the system., • Define and coordinate the system-level design development and verification philosophy. Technical Leadership • Lead multidisciplinary engineering teams to deliver end-to-end mission development, including:, • Space Segment, • Ground Segment, • Launch Segment, • In-orbit operations, • Coordinate the activities of domain experts across multiple engineering disciplines., • Define and coordinate system-level engineering support activities across spacecraft subsystems., • Monitor and control interfaces between:, • Spacecraft subsystems, • Spacecraft–Launch vehicle interfaces, • Spacecraft–Ground segment interfaces Project and Program Management • Manage the technical schedule to ensure timely delivery of mission milestones., • Maintain responsibility for technical risk registers and cost considerations., • Monitor and control system-level budgets and maintain up-to-date analyses., • Support the spacecraft program manager in negotiations related to spacecraft and launcher contracts. Engineering Oversight and Integration • Coordinate engineering activities for the ground segment and mission operations., • Monitor and control the work of subcontractors and internal teams related to design, development, production, and Assembly Integration and Test (AIT)., • Ensure that contractual technical requirements are met across subsystem and system levels., • Provide support to anomaly and failure investigations at equipment, subsystem, system, and in-orbit levels. Reviews, Operations, and Stakeholder Engagement • Coordinate and support design reviews, ensuring compliance with system-level requirements., • Support mission operations activities including:, • Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP), • In-Orbit Testing (IOT), • Lead technical interactions with customers, partners, and subcontractors., • Support strategic planning and proposal writing for future missions and business opportunities. Required Qualifications (Must Have) • 10+ years of experience in the spacecraft industry, with 5+ years in technical leadership roles, • Experience in system requirement decomposition, trade studies, and sizing/error budget development for spacecraft systems, • Working knowledge of spacecraft operations and ground segment systems, • Familiarity with the full space program lifecycle, including:, • Business development, • Proposal generation, • Contract negotiation, • System design and development, • Assembly, integration, and testing, • Mission delivery and operations Technical Expertise Demonstrated experience in three or more of the following areas: • Spacecraft system-level design and analysis, • Ground segment design and implementation, • Avionics and electronics, • Electrical power systems, • Attitude and Orbit Control Systems (AOCS), • Propulsion systems, • Thermal and mechanical engineering, • Fault Detection, Isolation and Recovery (FDIR), • Spacecraft Assembly, Integration and Testing (AIT), • Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP) and in-orbit operations, • Manufacturing processes, • Launcher interfaces, • Technical team leadership Standards Knowledge • Proven knowledge of ECSS-N-10, ensuring technical requirements are written, structured, and traced according to European standards, critical for ESA projects and European primes. Additional Requirements • Experience working with LEO, MEO, or GEO spacecraft systems, • Proven track record delivering complex space development programs, • Confidence leading multidisciplinary engineering teams, • Highly organised with the ability to manage multiple technical workstreams, • Comfortable interacting with institutional and commercial customer