Chief Engineer, Space Vehicle Autonomy

At Blue Origin, we envision millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. We’re working to develop reusable, safe, and low-cost space vehicles and systems within a culture of safety, collaboration, and inclusion. This role is part of the In-Space Systems and Blue National Security business units, focused on addressing space infrastructure and increasing mobility on-orbit.

About the role

As the Chief Engineer, Space Vehicle Autonomy, you will serve as the senior technical authority driving the architecture, design, and maturation of autonomous decision-making systems for our satellite platforms. These systems must not only act independently but also perceive and understand the orbital environment. You will bridge traditional deterministic autonomy engineering with modern AI/ML and computer vision techniques, integrating Space Domain Awareness (SDA) directly into the autonomy architecture. This enables our spacecraft to sense, characterize, decide, and act in increasingly complex and contested space environments.

This role calls for a leader who can drive software and AI/ML autonomy architecture while partnering closely with GN&C, perception, and systems engineering teams to optimize overall system design. You will set the technical direction, adjudicate engineering trade-offs, and serve as the final technical authority on autonomy and SDA architecture across the program. While scoped to support National Security satellite platforms, the autonomy and SDA principles developed here are expected to inform future reuse across Blue Origin's broader portfolio, including civil space and deep-space missions requiring autonomous navigation (e.g., lunar/Mars optical navigation).

• Relocation assistance provided for this role.
• Candidates should expect to travel approximately 25% of the time to support customer engagements, test campaigns, and reviews.
• This position supports Blue Origin's National Security business unit and may require access to controlled or classified information.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical authority for space vehicle autonomy, setting the architecture and technical strategy for onboard autonomous decision-making across fault management, navigation, and mission execution.
• Define and evolve the autonomy architecture spanning traditional rule-based/deterministic autonomy (state machines, fault detection, isolation and response (FDIR)) and modern AI/ML and convolutional neural network (CNN)-based perception and decision-making methods.
• Provide expert technical direction on Observe-Orient-Decide-Act (OODA) loop implementation for autonomous spacecraft operating in Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) mission profiles.
• Integrate Space Domain Awareness (SDA) principles into onboard autonomy — enabling spacecraft to detect, track, characterize, and respond to other objects and activity within the surrounding orbital environment.
• Lead the technical strategy for perception stacks, including sensor fusion, relative navigation, space object detection/tracking, and vision-based pose estimation supporting autonomous maneuvering, inspection, and SDA missions.
• Guide the development and oversight of MLOps pipelines, including training data curation, model validation, verification, and lifecycle management for flight-qualified ML/AI models supporting autonomy and SDA functions.
• Define and own the verification strategy for autonomy and SDA functions across the full test hierarchy, including software-in-the-loop (SIL) and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) demonstration campaigns, ensuring algorithms and models are rigorously matured and validated prior to onboard/flight integration.
• Chair and participate in Engineering Review Boards and Failure Review Boards, adjudicating technical gaps between as-designed, as-built, and as-tested configurations.
• Act as the final decision-maker on complex, multidisciplinary autonomy technical problems, balancing performance, safety, and mission assurance in contested and congested space environments.
• Partner with systems engineering, GN&C, flight software, mission operations, and intelligence/SDA stakeholders to ensure autonomy solutions are integrated across the full spacecraft architecture.
• Serve as a technical bridge across autonomy, perception, GN&C, and systems engineering, ensuring decision-making and navigation/estimation functions are architected as one coherent system and that requirements, interfaces, and verification stay aligned across disciplines.
• Partner with GN&C, computer vision, software, and systems engineering leads to define clean interfaces across the autonomy architecture, ensuring the system can support navigation-driven mission profiles such as deep-space optical navigation without the autonomy chief engineer owning detailed navigation filter design.
• Drive innovation in autonomy engineering practices, staying current with emerging AI/ML techniques and translating them into flight-ready capabilities for both autonomous operations and space domain awareness.
• Maintain deep, current familiarity with the autonomy and SDA needs, CONOPS, and risk posture of national security space customers (e.g., Space Force, NRO, SDA), proactively shaping the autonomy architecture and roadmap to anticipate, not just respond to, evolving customer and policy requirements around autonomous decision-making.
• Architect autonomy and SDA solutions with an eye toward cross-program reusability, ensuring core autonomy architecture, perception, and decision-making frameworks developed for National Security platforms can be extended or adapted to support future civil space and deep-space missions (e.g., autonomous optical navigation for lunar/Mars missions).
• Represent the program's autonomy and SDA technical strategy in customer reviews, milestone meetings, and proposal efforts.
• Mentor and elevate the technical rigor of engineers across the autonomy discipline without formal people-management responsibility.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor of Science degree in an engineering-related field.
• Minimum of 20 years of advanced spacecraft design, development, or analysis experience.
• Demonstrated experience as a technical authority or chief engineer on complex spacecraft or autonomy programs.
• Deep understanding of traditional autonomy mechanisms (state machines, FDIR, rule-based logic) as well as AI/ML/CNN-based approaches to autonomy.
• Experience adjudicating complex technical trade-offs and leading Engineering/Failure Review Boards.
• Demonstrated understanding of national security space customer needs, CONOPS, and requirements for autonomous and SDA systems, including experience translating mission and policy constraints (e.g., human-on-the-loop/in-the-loop authority requirements) into engineering requirements and architecture.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in Engineering (Robotics, Spacecraft Design, Automation, or related field); PhD desired.
• Direct experience with Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) and other autonomous mission architectures.
• Background in autonomy architecture development for satellites or other autonomous vehicles.
• Working knowledge of MLOps pipelines, including training data set curation, model training/retraining, and deployment for flight or safety-critical systems.
• Experience defining and executing SIL/HIL test campaigns for autonomy, GN&C, or flight software prior to flight integration, including establishing pass/fail criteria and managing the transition from simulation to hardware-representative environments.
• Experience collaborating closely with GN&C, perception, and systems engineering teams on a spacecraft autonomy or RPO program, with enough fluency in navigation and relative-navigation/estimation concepts to translate effectively between disciplines.
• Experience with perception stacks — sensor fusion, computer vision, LIDAR, and vision-based pose estimation.
• Experience supporting Space Domain Awareness (SDA) missions, including space object tracking, characterization, and threat/anomaly detection.
• Familiarity with the broader space domain awareness ecosystem, including catalog maintenance, conjunction assessment, and space situational awareness data sources.
• Direct experience engaging with government customers, primes, or intelligence community stakeholders to shape autonomy requirements and policy positions; familiarity with DoD space autonomy acquisition standards and certification processes.
• Experience with autonomy or navigation architectures for deep-space or civil space missions (e.g., lunar, Mars, or other beyond-LEO missions), particularly autonomous optical navigation (OpNav) or other navigation-driven autonomy applications.
• Active or eligible TS security clearance (TS//SCI preferred).
• Experience presenting technical strategy to government and commercial customers at the executive level.

Pay

• Base Pay Range for CA applicants: $213,677.00 - $299,147.10
• Base Pay Range for CO applicants: $202,331.00 - $283,262.70
• Base Pay Range for WA applicants: $213,677.00 - $299,147.10
• Base Pay Range for VA applicants: $213,677.00 - $299,147.10
• Other site ranges may differ.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision, basic and supplemental life insurance.
• Paid parental leave.
• Short and long-term disability.
• 401(k) with a company match of up to 5%.
• Education Support Program.
• Stock Options for all regular employees (working at least 20 hours/week).
• Paid Time Off: Up to four (4) weeks per year based on weekly scheduled hours, and up to 14 company-paid holidays.

Applicants for employment at Blue Origin must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (i.e., current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum. Certain roles may require additional background checks, including Defense Biometric Identification System (DBIDS) or Department of Transportation (DOT) requirements for drivers operating commercial motor vehicles.