Instrument Systems Engineer
About The Position
About the role Muon seeks an Instrument Systems Engineer to join our team in Mountain View, CA with a focus on infrared remote sensing instruments. The ideal candidate is a self-motivated engineer with a versatile skill set who is comfortable working across many layers of technical depth from individual components through system level. This role will be a key member of the instrument engineering team, driving development from concept through on-orbit operations. Previous experience developing and operating infrared electro-optical systems, remote sensing instruments, and test infrastructure in fast-paced and small-team environments is preferred.
Requirements
- B.S, M.S., or Ph.D. in an engineering field, or equivalent experience.
- 5+ years of experience working in a multi-disciplinary environment, with exposure to imaging systems, infrared remote sensing instruments, and spacecraft.
- Software skills in one or more languages (e.g. Python, Julia, C++).
- Experience integrating and interpreting STOP analysis results to drive instrument design trades and error budget allocations.
- Experience with root cause analysis efforts including data analysis and testing.
- Experience performing data analysis, post-processing, and test report generation.
- Excellent communication, presentation, and organization skills.
- Excited to work in a fast-paced environment with new challenges each week.
Nice To Haves
- Experience working hands-on with precision optical and mechanical metrology equipment.
- Experience supporting environmental testing (thermal stress screening, TVAC, random vibration), integrated spacecraft testing, and launch campaigns.
- Experience working in cleanroom environments.
Responsibilities
- Develop instrument concept of operations, radiometric model, transmission budget, and scene observation geometry model, and integrate with mission simulation tools.
- Develop and manage technical budgets, including mass, power, thermal, line-of-sight pointing/jitter, and data volume, to ensure adequate margins throughout development.
- Develop comprehensive interface control documents (ICDs) across mechanical, thermal, electrical, and software interfaces, to drive a modular instrument architecture.
- Support optical instrument assembly, integration, and test (AI&T) planning and implementation, including collaboration with cross-functional teams.
- Contribute to the continuous improvement of best practices, processes, tools, and methodologies to enhance efficiency and scalability of instrument development.
- Collaborate and communicate effectively with instrument and spacecraft systems engineers, ground and flight software engineers, program managers, and customers.
- This position participates in a 24/7 on-call rotation to support on-orbit anomaly resolution. The on-call rotation is approximately one week per month.
Benefits
- In addition to salary, full-time employees receive equity compensation as well as benefits including medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401k retirement plan, short & long term disability and life insurance.
- We also offer three weeks paid vacation for new employees, along with 12 paid holidays, unlimited sick time and paid parental leave.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
Education Level
Ph.D. or professional degree
