Spacecraft System Architect Lead (Aerospace)

Location: Kent, Washington, United States; onsite role. U.S. citizenship, lawful permanent residency, or protected-individual status is required for ITAR-controlled technology access.

Base salary ranges: $151,305–$252,105 for Level 4, $176,505–$327,810 for Level 5, and $262,185–$393,435 for Level 6.

Company

hirify.global develops Nova, a fully and rapidly reusable launch vehicle, and spacecraft and on-orbit mobility products intended to expand space transportation beyond launch.

What you will do

• Translate customer and business objectives into system concepts, concepts of operations, functional capabilities, system requirements, and product breakdowns.
• Perform first-order analysis across propulsion, GNC, power, thermal, structures, avionics, software, and ground systems to estimate mass, power, cost, and performance.
• Make and carry cross-disciplinary architectural trades through design reviews, establish margins and reliability targets, and define an incremental path from demonstration to production.
• Define interfaces with Nova and customer systems; select and manage external partners, including requirements, interface control, and acceptance of major subsystems.
• Support detailed design, integration, test, launch, and on-orbit operations, feeding lessons learned into future architectures.
• Act as the technical face of the product, lead schedule, budget, and risk through first flight, and help grow the engineering team.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in aerospace, mechanical, electrical engineering, physics, or a related field.
• 10+ years of spacecraft or launch vehicle engineering experience, including at least one spacecraft carried from concept through on-orbit operations.
• Experience as a chief engineer, system architect, vehicle lead, or equivalent accountable technical leader on a spacecraft or stage.
• Exceptional command of fundamentals in one or more of structures, propulsion, thermal, power, GNC, avionics, or software, with the ability to apply first-order analysis across all disciplines.
• Ability to make rapid, well-reasoned architectural decisions across disciplines with incomplete information.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to lead and to follow.
• U.S. citizenship, lawful permanent residency, or protected-individual status is required for access to ITAR-controlled technology.

Nice to have

• Flight heritage on a long-duration spacecraft in GEO, MEO, cislunar, or multi-year LEO missions.
• Experience with atmospheric reentry, aerobraking, atmospheric flight phases, high-delta-v maneuvering, rendezvous, proximity operations, or refueling.
• Experience shipping flight hardware on a startup timeline and making architectural trades directly.
• Production-rate or constellation bus experience, including cost-per-unit and factory-oriented development.
• Experience with national-security space customers and the demonstration-to-program path.
• Experience with storable or green chemical propulsion, electric propulsion, or refueling interfaces.
• Experience leading or managing engineering teams.
• Master’s degree or PhD in aerospace engineering or a related field.

Culture & Benefits

• Mission-driven, collaborative environment with ownership of work and a small, newly formed organization.
• Equity through stock options for regular full-time employees.
• Subsidized medical, dental, and vision insurance, plus company-paid life and disability insurance.
• 401(k) plan with employer match, four weeks of paid time off, ten paid holidays, and paid family/parental leave.
• On-site gym or monthly wellness stipend, depending on location, and dog-friendly offices.