Senior Mission Design Engineer (Aerospace)

Location: On-site in El Segundo, California, United States

Salary: $170,000–$215,000 per year, plus potential stock options and/or long-term cash awards.

Company

hirify.global develops commercial space infrastructure, including in-orbit pharmaceutical processing, reentry capsules, heat shields, and satellite buses.

What you will do

• Design, optimize, and analyze dispersions for spacecraft trajectories and commercial vehicle reentry missions.
• Develop orbital analyses and optimize trajectories for fuel, time, and performance objectives.
• Build autonomous navigation, collision avoidance, orbital rendezvous, and atmospheric reentry algorithms.
• Develop and maintain modeling, simulation, and ground-based mission operations tooling.
• Run Monte Carlo analyses and support in-orbit operations as a trajectory specialist.
• Lead new vehicle capability development in collaboration with propulsion, software, flight operations, and vehicle engineering teams.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in aerospace, mechanical, electrical engineering, physics, or a related field; alternatively, a PhD with relevant experience.
• 5+ years of proven experience, or 3+ years with a PhD, in orbital trajectories or aerospace guidance, navigation, and control systems.
• Strong software and model development skills in C++, Python, and/or MATLAB, including six-degree-of-freedom vehicle simulation.
• Understanding of orbital mechanics, modeling and simulation, software development, systems engineering, and configuration management.
• Experience with trajectory design, optimization, dispersion analysis, requirements capture, design trades, and mission-specific analysis.
• Must be lawfully authorized to work in the United States and qualify as a U.S. person for access to export-controlled technology.

Nice to have

• Knowledge of multi-body dynamics, flexible body dynamics, gas dynamics, fluids, and thermodynamics.
• Experience developing and verifying physical models, supporting flight tests, or flying spacecraft.
• Technical leadership experience on launch vehicle or satellite development programs.
• Experience with startup, agile, lean software development, or cradle-to-grave project management.

Culture & Benefits

• Collaborative, multidisciplinary environment focused on commercial space infrastructure.
• Flexible paid time off, 12 paid holidays, and 12 weeks of parental leave.
• Company-paid medical, dental, and vision insurance with FSA and employer-matched HSA options.
• 401(k) plan with a 6% employer match, immediately vested, plus incentive equity.
• Relocation support may be available for new hires.
• Daily lunch, twice-weekly dinner, wellness reimbursement, team events, and complimentary EV charging.