Senior Lead Systems Engineer (Aerospace)

Location: Hybrid in Arvada, Colorado, United States; 9/80 schedule with occasional travel and off-shift testing or support.

Salary: $145,000–$210,000 annually.

Company

hirify.global develops spacecraft propulsion systems, avionics, flight software, structures, and vertically integrated space vehicle solutions for space and defense customers.

What you will do

• Serve as technical lead and systems engineering authority for spacecraft buses across the full program lifecycle.
• Lead spacecraft architecture, requirements allocation, design trades, technical baselines, verification plans, interfaces, technical budgets, and configuration baselines.
• Direct multidisciplinary integration of structures, thermal, power, avionics, flight software, GN&C, propulsion, communications, and harnessing.
• Coordinate payload, launch vehicle, ground segment, mission operations, customer, supplier, manufacturing, and test interfaces.
• Lead risk management, anomaly investigations, corrective actions, environmental and end-to-end testing, and compliance with mission, safety, reliability, quality, regulatory, and mission-assurance requirements.
• Mentor engineers, communicate technical status and decisions, support customer engagements and proposals, and improve systems engineering processes, tools, standards, and lessons learned.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in aerospace, mechanical, electrical, systems engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• 7+ years of relevant aerospace engineering experience, including spacecraft or similarly complex mission-critical systems.
• Experience leading spacecraft payload, bus, or space vehicle-level systems engineering across multiple lifecycle phases.
• Strong understanding of spacecraft architectures, subsystem interactions, requirements management, interface control, technical budgets, and verification.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary trade studies, integration activities, technical risk management, design reviews, system testing, supplier oversight, and anomaly investigations.
• Ability to lead cross-functional teams and make technical decisions while balancing performance, risk, cost, and schedule.
• Experience with requirements management, configuration management, analysis, modeling, or engineering collaboration tools.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including presenting technical information to multidisciplinary teams, leadership, customers, and suppliers.
• Ability to support occasional travel and off-shift testing and support when required.

Nice to have

• Master’s degree or doctorate in aerospace, systems engineering, or a related discipline.
• 12+ years of spacecraft engineering experience, including experience as a lead systems engineer, spacecraft bus lead, or chief engineer.
• Experience taking a spacecraft through design, integration, environmental testing, launch, commissioning, or on-orbit operations.
• Technical depth in GN&C, electrical power, avionics, flight software, propulsion, thermal, structures, or communications.
• Experience with MBSE/SysML and NASA, Department of Defense, Space Force, ECSS, AIAA, or commercial spacecraft standards and mission-assurance practices.
• Experience with reliability and safety analyses, fault management, redundancy, radiation effects, single-point-failure assessments, suppliers, launch vehicle interfaces, payload integration, and ground or mission-operations interfaces.
• Experience supporting business development, capture, proposals, customer presentations, technical volumes, and basis-of-estimate development.

Culture & Benefits

• Hybrid 9/80 schedule with every other Friday off.
• Paid time off, holidays, parental leave, and relocation assistance.
• Medical, dental, vision, life, disability, Employee Assistance Plan, Flexible Spending Accounts, and Health Savings Accounts.
• Annual profit sharing, matching 401(k), and Employee Stock Purchase Plan.
• Tuition assistance, mentorship, coaching, leadership development, and personal growth programs.
• Inclusive workplace with Employee Resource Groups and team-building activities.