Senior Director, EO/IR Instrument Engineering

Location: Hybrid, with onsite work at the Mountain View, CA office three days per week. Ability to work onsite at Bay Area facilities is required. U.S. person status or eligibility for required export authorization is required under ITAR/EAR.

Salary: $256,000–$293,000 per year, plus equity and benefits.

Company

hirify.global designs, builds, and operates LEO satellite constellations and spacecraft payloads for Earth intelligence, climate monitoring, and national security applications.

What you will do

• Set the company EO/IR strategy, define target missions and markets, and own the multi-year technology, infrastructure, and operating budget plan.
• Own EO/IR instrument performance, cost, schedule, estimates, and delivery across all flight programs.
• Lead portfolio technical reviews from requirements and PDR/CDR through test readiness, pre-ship, and on-orbit performance.
• Define reusable instrument architectures, common focal-plane and electronics building blocks, and make/buy strategies for optics, detectors, and cryocoolers.
• Provide final technical authority for radiometric performance budgets, calibration, contamination control, and design-for-manufacture.
• Build and lead the organization, hire approximately 20 engineers and managers, develop managers, and establish scalable labs, processes, and test infrastructure.

Requirements

• BS in physics, optical engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, or a related field.
• 20+ years developing EO/IR imaging instruments, including at least 10 years leading engineering organizations.
• Technical leadership of at least two space-flight EO/IR instruments from concept through launch and on-orbit checkout.
• Experience leading an organization of 40+ people through multiple management layers with budget accountability.
• Working command of the full instrument chain: optical design, focal-plane arrays and readout electronics, thermal and cryogenic design, radiometric calibration, and on-orbit performance.
• Record of owning instrument cost and schedule commitments and representing an instrument or payload portfolio to customers and senior executives.
• Ability to work onsite at Bay Area facilities.
• U.S. person status as required by ITAR/EAR, or eligibility to access export-controlled information without authorization or obtain the required authorization.

Nice to have

• MS or PhD in optics, physics, or electrical engineering.
• MWIR/LWIR instrument experience, including cooled HgCdTe, InSb, or T2SL focal planes and cryocooler integration.
• Experience delivering multiple units of the same instrument design, ideally at constellation scale.
• Small satellite or commercial space experience where cost and cycle time drove the architecture.
• Earth observation, wildfire, weather, or national security EO/IR mission background.
• Active security clearance or eligibility to obtain one.
• Prior VP or director-of-directors experience and experience building organizations through rapid growth, including hiring and developing first-time managers.

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.
• Equal employment opportunity and reasonable accommodation support.