Mission Solutions & Payload – Payload Technical Director

RTX • El Segundo, CA

6d • Onsite

About The Position

As the Payloads Technical Director for Mission Solutions and Payloads, you will provide strategic technical leadership across our space payload portfolio, shaping the technologies, architecture, products, and talent needed to meet current and future mission needs. This position is an onsite role located in El Segundo, CA and will require travel (25%-50%). In this role, you will gain broad exposure to the technologies, missions, customers, and business strategies shaping the future of space payloads. You will develop a deep understanding of the organization’s space payload portfolio, technologies, products, and mission applications. Expand your knowledge of emerging customer missions, operational needs, threats, and future space architecture. Develop deeper relationships with customers, industry partners, suppliers, and technical leaders across the space community. Strengthen your technical leadership capabilities in ways that shape long‑term mission and program success. Tackle some of the most challenging technical problems in the industry, expanding your ability to innovate and solve complex issues. Grow in a highly visible role that allows you to influence outcomes and elevate your impact across the enterprise. Build a broader understanding of the business, including strategic planning, new business pursuits, competitive positioning, and technology differentiation. Broaden your technical horizons and gain exposure to a portfolio of advanced products and technologies. Expand your leadership skills through mentoring technical leaders, building collaborative teams, and shaping the technical talent needed for future missions.

Requirements

• Typically requires a Bachelor's Degree in Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM) and a minimum of 14 years of prior relevant experience prohibited by local laws/regulations.
• Technical leadership experience in complex space payloads, sensors, mission systems, or related technologies, with strong systems engineering and architecture experience.
• Experience leading and influencing across programs and organizations, making sound technical decisions balancing performance, cost, schedule, and risk, and develop technical talent.
• Ability to travel 25-50% as required to support customers, programs, technical reviews, and business activities.
• Active and transferable U.S. government-issued Top Secret/SCI security clearance is required before the start date.
• U.S. citizenship is required, as only U.S. citizens are eligible for a security clearance.

Nice To Haves

• Broad technical experience across multiple space payload, sensor, or mission areas.
• Strong communication and customer engagement skills, with the ability to communicate complex technical concepts and influence senior leaders, customers, and key stakeholders.
• Strong systems engineering background with the ability to understand and influence complex system and mission architectures.
• Strong understanding of end-to-end space mission architectures, including payloads, spacecraft, communications, ground systems, mission processing, and command and control.
• Experience developing or leading advanced space payload architectures from concept development through integration, test, and deployment.
• Experience with advanced sensors, signal processing, mission data processing, or related payload technologies.
• Familiarity with model-based systems engineering (MBSE), modeling and simulation, digital engineering, and data-driven engineering approaches.
• Experience applying product-line architectures, modular open systems approaches, common interfaces, and reusable technologies across multiple programs.
• Demonstrated ability to make sound technical decisions by balancing performance, cost, schedule, risk, and technology maturity.
• Experience developing technical strategies, technology roadmaps, architectures, or investment plans.
• Experience developing technology and product roadmaps and shaping IRAD or other strategic technology investments.
• Demonstrated success transitioning advanced technologies from research and development into programs, products, or operational capabilities.
• Experience leading technical teams and influencing across programs, functions, and organizations.
• Demonstrated ability to lead and influence across organizational boundaries and build effective partnerships with programs, customers, suppliers, and industry partners.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor and develop technical talent and build strong technical teams.
• Experience mentoring systems architects, technical fellows, and other senior technical leaders.
• Experience supporting new business activities, including customer engagement, concept development, technical proposals, or competitive pursuits.
• Experience shaping customer requirements and developing technical solutions for new business pursuits and competitive captures.
• Strong executive-level communication skills with experience presenting complex technical strategies and recommendations to senior customers and business leadership.

Responsibilities

• Establish and drive the technical vision, strategy, and technology roadmaps for the space payload portfolio.
• Provide technical leadership for mission concepts and architecture development to drive competitive pursuit offerings.
• Shape next-generation payload architectures and lead technical trades that balance mission performance, affordability, schedule, risk, producibility, and technology maturity.
• Partner with MSP leadership, programs, engineering, strategy, and requirements and capabilities leaders to shape pursuits and develop differentiated solutions for emerging customer needs.
• Engage directly with customers and partners to understand mission challenges, influence future requirements, and translate operational needs into executable technical solutions.
• Guide IRAD and technology investments, identifying critical technology gaps and accelerating maturation and transition of differentiating capabilities.
• Promote common architecture, reusable technologies, open interfaces, and product-line approaches that enable rapid and affordable capability insertion.
• Provide senior technical oversight for critical program decisions, technical reviews, architecture trades, and resolution of significant technical risks.
• Champion systems thinking, modeling and simulation, MBSE, data-driven decision making, and disciplined engineering practices across the organization.
• Connect payload development with spacecraft, ground, communications, mission processing, and other elements to optimize end-to-end mission performance.
• Develop and mentor technical directors, architects, technical fellows, and emerging technical leaders while strengthening the organization's technical talent pipeline.
• Foster collaboration and technology sharing across programs and organizations to accelerate innovation and transition proven solutions.
• Represent the organization in senior-level customer engagements, technical interchange meetings, industry forums, and executive reviews.

Benefits

• medical
• dental
• vision
• life insurance
• short-term disability
• long-term disability
• 401(k) match
• flexible spending accounts
• flexible work schedules
• employee assistance program
• Employee Scholar Program
• parental leave
• paid time off
• holidays

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior