Staff Mission Lead Systems Engineer - EO / IR Systems

Location: Northern Virginia, United States. The role requires access to export-controlled information and eligibility under U.S. export regulations; candidates must be U.S. persons or otherwise eligible for the required authorization.

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 early formulation and proposal efforts.
• Build and maintain mission-level architecture, requirements, interface, behavior, and system models through implementation.
• Act as the technical authority and primary technical interface for a designated mission, coordinating customers, partners, and internal stakeholders.
• Translate customer objectives into verifiable requirements, manage traceability and validation, and control subsystem budgets for power, data, mass, and pointing stability.
• Lead design, test readiness, and flight readiness reviews while identifying and mitigating mission risks.
• Provide technical direction across systems, hardware, software, data, ground segment, and operations teams, including on-orbit monitoring and mission performance validation.

Requirements

• Direct engineering experience with EO/IR and/or RF payloads, instruments, architectures, link budgets, or spectrum and regulatory considerations.
• B.S. or higher degree in engineering and 8+ years of experience in complex systems, mission architecture, and/or spacecraft design.
• Experience serving as a technical lead on complex systems for U.S. Government, DoD, Intelligence Community, and/or demanding commercial customers.
• Experience with major space programs, USG/IC acquisition programs, mission assurance standards, contracts, and proposal responses.
• 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 an equivalent SysML 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, and related data pipelines.

Culture & Benefits

• Full-time employment with equity compensation.
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance, 401(k), disability insurance, and life insurance.
• Three weeks of paid vacation for new employees, 12 paid holidays, unlimited sick time, and paid parental leave.
• Lean, agile environment with changing mission needs and schedules.
• Equal employment opportunity and reasonable accommodation support.