Payload Lead

Responsibilities

• Lead the overall development of the payload, ultimately delivering a system (internally) that meets performance, cost, and schedule objectives
• Lead design trade studies to balance production feasibility/ease/costs with top-level image quality; own the top-level image quality budget
• Define requirements and traverse trade studies throughout the various phases of development and integration
• Define and drive on-ground payload assembly, integration, test, and calibration at all phases of development; define and lead on-orbit payload calibration
• Manage both internal engineering and sub-contractor teams associated with payload specific subsystems and structures
• Collaborate with other subsystem leads on the development of the spacecraft overall
• Simulate payload performance to aid in payload development
• Collaborate with software engineers in the development and implementation of the overall image processing pipeline
• Work with company leadership in defining and implementing roadmaps for future capabilities

Requirements

• Bachelor’s of Science degree or higher in Physics, Engineering, Remote Sensing or equivalent, with each higher-level degree counting as an additional 2 years of experience
• A minimum 12 years of progressively responsible experience in the engineering field, including hands-on experience through all phases of payload development
• A minimum of 5 years of experience in a leadership role, to include managing technical teams and acting as primary customer interface, activity planning and development, staffing, cost and schedule budgeting and management, cross-functional collaboration and support to enterprise test activities
• Ability to communicate highly complex technical concepts and ideas to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Experience with requirements analysis, decomposition, and allocation
• Spacecraft operations experience, particularly the LEOP phase and payload commissioning
• Experience within a startup environment if preferred