Space Systems Engineer (Radar)

Location: Redwood City, California; on-site. ITAR eligibility is required: U.S. citizenship, lawful permanent residency, protected-individual status, or eligibility to obtain the required U.S. authorizations.

Salary: $150,000–$250,000 per year, with salary and equity compensation options.

Company

hirify.global develops radar satellite systems for creating high-resolution, real-time 3D maps of Earth for disaster response, infrastructure resilience, and geopolitical intelligence.

What you will do

• Own interfaces across mechanical, electrical, RF, and data domains.
• Lead system design reviews and support technical reviews throughout the product lifecycle.
• Create functional and environmental test strategies for spacecraft and subsystems.
• Model and monitor power, thermal, data, pointing, and momentum budgets.
• Drive architecture trade studies, component selection, parameter sweeps, and performance modeling.
• Manage supplier and customer technical relationships, radar payload discussions, regulatory support, and spacecraft hardware risk mitigation.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, systems engineering, physics, or a related technical field.
• At least 3 years of experience in spacecraft or complex aerospace systems engineering.
• Experience delivering space flight hardware and supporting hardware integration and test campaigns.
• Experience owning system-level requirements and interface definitions.
• Strong understanding of spacecraft and payload subsystems, with familiarity with radar or RF payload systems.
• Must meet U.S. ITAR eligibility requirements and work on-site in Redwood City, California.

Nice to have

• Experience operating spacecraft in LEO or managing serially manufactured spacecraft fleets.
• Experience with fault, reliability, FDIR, fault-tolerance, and root-cause analysis.
• Python scripting, SAR instruments, Earth imaging sensors, orbital analysis, or mission modeling tools such as STK or FreeFlyer.
• Experience with spacecraft subsystems, vendor management, customer-facing aerospace interfaces, link budgets, radar range equations, or ground-segment operations.
• Familiarity with NOAA remote-sensing regulations, FCC spectrum licensing, and EAR/ITAR export controls.

Culture & Benefits

• Fast-paced, resource-constrained startup environment with significant ownership and autonomy.
• Highly technical, mission-driven, and collaborative working environment.
• Choice of low-, medium-, or high-equity compensation mix.
• Health, dental, vision, 401(k) with company match, commuter benefits, and other benefits for full-time employees.

Hiring process

• Interviews are conducted via Google Meet, with a possible on-site visit.
• The process typically takes 3–5 weeks from start to finish.