Chief Engineer, Ground Software (Aerospace)

Location: Onsite at Centennial, Colorado or Long Beach, California, with travel to other sites as needed.

Base salary: $190,000–$305,000 per year, plus equity and benefits.

Company

hirify.global develops autonomous spacecraft, advanced payloads, mission software, and space-based interceptors for space superiority and missile defense.

What you will do

• Define and own the end-to-end ground-segment architecture for a large-scale heterogeneous command-and-control system.
• Establish architectural principles for scalability, resiliency, security, autonomy, interoperability, and vendor-agnostic integration.
• Lead the technical baseline for real-time command and control, including telemetry ingestion, alert monitoring, burn plans, and tactical message relay.
• Direct data-pipeline design covering telemetry ingestion, decision-making algorithms, and mission visualization.
• Oversee cybersecurity architecture aligned with RMF, Zero Trust, and mission-assurance standards.
• Guide principal engineers and system integrators while coordinating with systems engineering, mission operations, hardware teams, government stakeholders, partners, and subcontractors.

Requirements

• Advanced degree in Computer Science, Electrical or Computer Engineering, or a related field.
• 15+ years of experience with large-scale, mission-critical software systems, including at least 5 years in a chief architect or equivalent role.
• Experience architecting real-time command-and-control or fire-control systems for defense, aerospace, or comparable domains.
• Deep expertise in distributed systems, autonomy, real-time decision-making architectures, networking, middleware, and high-availability architectures.
• Experience with DoD software standards, cybersecurity frameworks, and mission-assurance processes.
• Must be a U.S. citizen and eligible for DoD Secret clearance; U.S. work authorization is also required for ITAR compliance.

Nice to have

• Experience with missile-defense, battle-management, or space-based command-and-control systems.
• Knowledge of hypersonic defense engagement timelines and fire-control challenges.
• Hands-on experience with AI/ML-enabled autonomy, simulation frameworks, and digital-twin architectures.
• Active security clearance, ability to obtain one, or TS/SCI clearance.

Culture & Benefits

• Equity and health, dental, vision, HRA/HSA benefits.
• Paid time off, paid holidays, 401(k), and parental leave.
• Work in a high-stakes environment focused on technical rigor, innovation, accountability, and mission success.
• Travel to other sites may be required.