Senior Vehicle & Mission Operations Engineer (Spacecraft)

Location: Los Angeles, CA, United States. The role involves on-site spacecraft operations at factories, test facilities, and launch sites. The hired candidate must be a U.S. Person under ITAR or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export control license.

Salary: $130,000–$180,000 per year plus company equity.

Company

hirify.global develops high-power satellite platforms for missions ranging from low Earth orbit to deep space and is scaling toward constellation production.

What you will do

• Define and operationalize mission operations for the first satellite mission, including procedures, tools, and real-time support systems.
• Develop telemetry monitoring strategies, fault-response frameworks, and command plans for pre-launch, LEOP, and nominal operations.
• Operate spacecraft during factory, test-facility, launch-site, and pre-launch activities, interpreting telemetry and sending commands.
• Collaborate with systems, software, and hardware teams to ensure operational readiness across spacecraft subsystems.
• Drive the roadmap for mission operations tooling, ground-segment workflows, and constellation management.
• Coordinate customer payload testing and assess integration and test approaches for at-rate production.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical, aerospace, mechanical, computer, or another relevant engineering discipline.
• At least 1 year of experience operating satellites on orbit and at least 5 years in operations, integration, or automation engineering.
• Experience testing and troubleshooting spacecraft, subsystems, components, and system acceptance tests.
• Familiarity with LEOP, telemetry, commanding, fault protection, and anomaly resolution.
• Experience developing telemetry, analysis, data-pipeline, or operational-dashboard tooling, plus scripting or automation with Python or Rust.
• Must be a U.S. Person under ITAR or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export control license.

Nice to have

• Experience with HITL or Flatsat software verification testbeds.
• Experience with GAaaS providers, Linux systems, or contractual interfaces involving customers and launch vehicles.

Culture & Benefits

• Paid time off.
• Medical, dental, and vision coverage.
• Life insurance and paid parental leave.
• Company equity and additional employee benefits.
• Non-traditional career paths are encouraged.