Senior Instrument Scientist (Calibration Testing)

Location: Hybrid role requiring on-site work in the Mountain View, California office three days per week. Applicants must meet U.S. export-control access requirements.

Salary: $197,000–$218,000 per year, plus equity and benefits.

Company

hirify.global designs, builds, and operates LEO satellite constellations that deliver mission-critical Earth intelligence and remote-sensing data.

What you will do

• Develop the hardware and software infrastructure used for ground calibration of electro-optical and infrared instruments.
• Define calibration test procedures for instruments integrated on spacecraft and ground testbeds.
• Execute calibration campaigns and deliver results and reports validating flight readiness.
• Coordinate with the Calibration Design Instrument Scientist to make calibration methodology executable through ground-test infrastructure.
• Participate in a 24/7 on-call rotation, approximately one week every six weeks, to support on-orbit anomaly resolution.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree in engineering, physics, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• 5+ years of experience building or operating ground-calibration infrastructure for imaging systems, remote-sensing instruments, or comparable electro-optical hardware.
• Hands-on experience with integrating spheres, blackbodies, collimators, autocollimators, and spacecraft testbeds.
• Experience operating flight software during integrated test campaigns.
• Proficiency in Python, Julia, or C++, including writing tested, reviewed, and maintained code for shared codebases.
• Must qualify for access to U.S. export-controlled information as a U.S. person, through an applicable exemption, or through eligibility for required export authorization.

Nice to have

• Experience with visible and infrared sensors or scanner characterization.
• Exposure to radiometric or geometric calibration methodology.
• Experience with calibration uncertainty analysis, error budgeting, and downstream data-product validation.
• Experience working in cleanrooms or handling sensitive electro-optical hardware.

Culture & Benefits

• Full-time employment with equity compensation.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• 401(k) retirement plan, disability coverage, and life insurance.
• Three weeks of paid vacation for new employees, 12 paid holidays, unlimited sick time, and paid parental leave.
• Equal employment opportunity and reasonable accommodations for applicants and interview participants.