Staff Mission Lead Systems Engineer (RF Systems)

Location: Northern Virginia, United States. The role is associated with a physical U.S. location and requires an active TS/SCI clearance. Applicants must meet U.S. export-control eligibility requirements for access to ITAR/EAR-controlled information.

Salary: $177,000–$246,000 per year, plus equity and benefits.

Company

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

What you will do

• Develop mission concepts, conduct architecture trade studies, and establish technical baselines during mission formulation.
• Own mission-level architecture, requirements, interfaces, behavior models, CONOPS, and subsystem budgets through implementation and operations.
• Serve as the technical authority and primary technical interface for customers, partners, and cross-functional engineering teams.
• Lead requirements traceability, verification and validation, design changes, risk mitigation, and design, test readiness, and flight readiness reviews.
• Monitor on-orbit spacecraft and data pipelines to validate mission performance and customer requirements.
• Provide technical direction to systems, RF, hardware, software, data, ground segment, and operations teams.

Requirements

• Direct engineering experience with RF systems, including RF payload or instrument design, link budgets, spectrum and regulatory considerations, and mission-level RF architecture trades.
• B.S. or higher in engineering and 8+ years of experience in complex systems, mission architecture, and/or spacecraft design.
• Experience as a technical lead on complex systems for U.S. Government, DoD, Intelligence Community, or demanding commercial customers.
• Experience with major space programs, USG/IC acquisition programs, space-system development standards, mission assurance, and government contract artifacts.
• Extensive experience in system modeling, systems analysis, simulations, integration, delivery, and formal requirements management.
• Active TS/SCI security clearance and eligibility to access U.S. export-controlled information are required.

Nice to have

• Experience with Cameo Systems Modeler or another SysML-based MBSE tool.
• Software skills in Python or Julia and familiarity with version control and code review.
• Knowledge of electrical or software quality standards.
• Remote sensing instrument experience across optical, multispectral, RF, or related data pipelines.

Culture & Benefits

• Lean, agile environment with changing technical demands and schedules.
• Equity compensation for full-time employees.
• Medical, dental, vision, disability, life insurance, and a 401(k) retirement plan.
• Three weeks of paid vacation for new employees, 12 paid holidays, unlimited sick time, and paid parental leave.
• Opportunity to work across spacecraft manufacturing, payload integration, mission operations, and Earth intelligence programs.