Mission Operations Engineer - USG/DoD

Nominal•New York, NY

3d•$120,000 - $200,000•Onsite

About The Position

Nominal is building the software infrastructure that powers the world’s most advanced hardware systems — from spacecraft and autonomous vehicles to next-generation industrial machines. Our platform ingests high-rate telemetry, validates complex autonomy software in real time, and helps engineering teams iterate faster without sacrificing safety or precision. We’re a small, fast-moving team of engineers and operators who own problems end-to-end, work across disciplines, and thrive on solving challenges at the intersection of hardware and software. As a dual-use platform, we're serving top-tier commercial and defense customers, including the U.S. Navy, United States Air Force, Shield AI, and Anduril. We’re backed by top-tier investors — Sequoia , General Catalyst, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, and Lightspeed Ventures — who share our mission to accelerate innovation in mission-critical systems. Our team brings experience from SpaceX, Palantir, Anduril, Applied Intuition, and other leading companies, united by a common goal: enabling hardware engineers to push the boundaries of advanced technology with speed, safety, and precision. The Mission Ops role sits at the intersection of field deployment, high-impact customer problem-solving, and software product management. You’ll work closely with customers, iterate on solutions in real-time, and have the opportunity to impact vital systems and technologies across the aerospace and defense sectors.

Requirements

Security clearance: Active Top Secret clearance or ability and willingness to obtain one.
DoD/federal experience: Minimum of 3 years supporting U.S. federal or DoD programs (uniformed, civilian, or contractor).
Mission-driven, autonomous operator: Experience managing projects end-to-end with minimal oversight, especially in mission-critical contexts. You’ve operated in environments where reliability, latency, and uptime are mission-critical.
Customer-facing experience: Ability to communicate and collaborate with technical and non-technical stakeholders. Comfort operating autonomously on-site. Able to explain complex technical concepts to a range of audiences—from engineers to program managers.
Software and data experience: Interest and experience working with data and analytics technologies and scripting (e.g., Python, MATLAB, SQL).
Hardware engineering background: education and experience in aerospace, mechanical, or electrical engineering.
Travel ready: Willing to travel up to 25–50% to support field deployments, particularly with government and DoD customers.

Nice To Haves

Test engineering: Familiarity with DAQs, DDS, telemetry frameworks and protocols (e.g. Ch10, MCAP, HDF5, TDMS). Prior work with test automation, CI/CD for hardware systems, or MIL-STD compliance workflows.
Data engineering: Proficiency in distributed data systems, DDIL resiliency, time-series data handling, and streaming frameworks (e.g. Kafka, Flink).

Responsibilities

Own the outcome: From data ingestion to analysis to decisions, own the delivery of high-impact workflows that enable our customers to ship hardware faster and more reliably.
Collaborate & lead: Interface directly with customers, PMs, and internal engineers to deliver production-ready solutions in fast-turn cycles. Act as a trusted advisor and embedded partner—managing relationships, ensuring satisfaction, and expanding Nominal’s technical and strategic footprint within key defense accounts.
Train & enable: Guide technical end-users through hands-on training and onboarding—empowering teams to get the most out of the platform.
Solve in the field: Be a hands-on problem-solver during complex deployments and field operations. You're comfortable working on-site in dynamic, demanding, and sometimes classified environments.
Drive product improvement: Translate field feedback into actionable feature enhancements and platform improvements.