Payload Systems Engineer (Hypersonic Vehicles)

Location: Onsite in Mojave, California, United States; travel estimated at less than 10%.

Base salary: $120,500–$158,000 for the Senior level or $157,000–$206,000 for the Staff level per year.

Company

Develops reusable air-launched hypersonic test vehicles and provides flight data for validating system performance and accelerating national security technologies.

What you will do

• Oversee and contribute to payload mechanical, structural, and materials requirements and integration.
• Coordinate payload integration, testing, and data collection with multidisciplinary engineering teams, program leadership, test engineers, and customers.
• Develop and track requirements and ensure payload testing meets customer requirements.
• Participate in test planning, Test Readiness Reviews, test execution, vehicle troubleshooting, and post-test data reviews.
• Architect and optimize data review methodology, data analysis tools, test planning, and documentation standards.
• Coordinate technical activities internally and with external payload customers while maintaining accountability and integrity.

Requirements

• Direct experience in at least two disciplines, including systems engineering, mechanical systems, materials, electrical and avionics systems, propulsion, GNC and flight controls, or aerodynamics.
• Previous systems engineering experience and experience contributing to a major technical review such as SRR, PDR, or CDR.
• Technical experience in mechanical, structural, or materials engineering.
• Bachelor’s degree and 5–10 years of relevant experience for Senior level, or 10–20 years for Staff level; equivalent combinations may be considered.
• Ability to acquire and maintain a security clearance; U.S. citizenship may be required for some government-cleared or restricted positions.
• Experience with MS Office, CAD tools, configuration management systems such as Jira, and requirements management systems such as Jama, Cameo, or DOORS.

Nice to have

• Experience with air-launched hypersonic vehicle development, hot-structure airframes, aerospace configuration management, or liquid rockets.
• Experience with technical risk identification, management, and mitigation.
• Current DOD Secret security clearance.
• Programming experience with Matlab or Python.

Culture & Benefits

• 9/80 work schedule.
• Medical, dental, vision, and prescription drug healthcare coverage.
• Paid maternity and parental leave.
• 50% company match on 401(k) contributions, up to $11,500.
• Tuition reimbursement.