Mission Operations Responsible Engineer/Scientist

Location: Long Beach, California, United States

Salary: $164,000–$246,000 USD annually

Company

hirify.global develops rockets and the Terran R launch vehicle to deliver customer payloads to orbit and expand access to space science and exploration.

What you will do

• Lead the planning, design, and execution of spacecraft operations for the Interplanetary Program’s first mission.
• Define the spacecraft operations architecture and own the end-to-end operating concept.
• Work with multiple science and instrument teams to maximize mission science data collection within spacecraft constraints.
• Automate spacecraft operations to improve spacecraft capability and operational efficiency.
• Reason through cross-subsystem interactions and make operational decisions with incomplete information and under time pressure.
• Support critical mission phases, including launch, commissioning, cruise maneuvers, and early operations.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in planetary science, aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, or a related technical discipline.
• 5+ years of experience with planetary missions and increasing operational ownership.
• Experience with scripting, such as Python, for data analysis or operational tasks.
• Proficiency in Linux/Unix environments.
• Ability to analyze cross-subsystem interactions and make decisions under time pressure.
• Excellent communication skills across engineering, science, and software disciplines.

Nice to have

• Experience with deep-space mission operations, including surface or orbital science campaigns.
• Experience designing onboard autonomy, automated scheduling systems, or ground-based flight-operations automation frameworks.

Culture & Benefits

• Senior, highly technical role with end-to-end ownership on a lean team.
• Shift work and on-call availability are required during critical mission phases.
• Schedule flexibility is needed as operational requirements evolve.
• Occasional travel of less than 10% to partner institutions and mission integration sites may be required.
• Competitive salary, equity, PTO, sick leave, parental leave, and an annual learning and development stipend.