Senior Director, EO/IR Instrument Engineering

Muon Space•Mountain View, CA

5d•Hybrid

About The Position

Muon Space seeks a Senior Director of EO/IR Instrument Engineering to lead the strategy, development, and delivery of its electro-optical and infrared instrument portfolio, from system architecture through on-orbit calibration. The role builds and mentors a multidisciplinary engineering organization that is roughly doubling in size, and establishes the technical direction and operational rigor needed to scale across a growing portfolio of flight programs. The leader owns instrument performance, cost, schedule, and business outcomes, aligning engineering execution with mission objectives. Reporting to the SVP of Mission Execution, this position serves on the Mission Execution leadership team and shapes EO/IR strategy, organizational capabilities, and portfolio execution. The position is hybrid, requiring on-site work at Muon’s Mountain View, California office three days per week. The role sets company EO/IR strategy and investment plans; owns instrument delivery across programs; defines reusable instrument architectures, roadmaps, and technical standards; and builds the engineering organization, processes, lab capability, and test infrastructure. It works across Mission Systems, Production, and Supply Chain, and represents EO/IR instruments to customers, partners, proposal teams, and the national security community. Success in the first year includes executive approval of an EO/IR strategy and multi-year investment plan; instrument plans, budgets, and schedules in place and being met across programs; hiring an Instrument AI&T manager and staffing the organization to plan; adoption of a reusable instrument architecture and roadmap in new proposals; and a documented, repeatable calibration and test flow from lab to orbit that produces flight data meeting requirements. The salary range is $256,000–$293,000, plus a competitive equity grant and comprehensive benefits. Final compensation depends on skills, qualifications, experience, and geographic location. Muon Space, founded in 2021, designs, builds, and operates LEO satellite constellations delivering mission-critical data. Its facility in Silicon Valley supports spacecraft manufacturing and payload integration. The company emphasizes equal employment opportunity and a diverse workforce. The role requires access to export-controlled information and eligibility under applicable U.S. export regulations.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in physics, optical engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, or a related field.
20+ years developing EO/IR imaging instruments.
At least 10 years leading engineering organizations.
Technical leadership of at least two spaceflight EO/IR instruments from concept through launch and on-orbit checkout.
Experience leading an organization of 40+ people through multiple layers of management, with budget accountability.
Working command of the full instrument chain, including optical design, focal plane arrays and readout electronics, thermal and cryogenic design, radiometric calibration, and on-orbit performance.
A record of owning instrument cost and schedule commitments and representing an instrument or payload portfolio to customers and senior executives.
Ability to work on-site at Bay Area facilities.
Must meet applicable U.S. export-control eligibility requirements for access to export-controlled information.

Nice To Haves

MS or PhD in optics, physics, or electrical engineering.
MWIR/LWIR instrument experience, including cooled focal planes (HgCdTe, InSb, or T2SL) and cryocooler integration.
Experience delivering multiple units of the same instrument design, ideally at constellation scale.
Small satellite or commercial space experience where cost and cycle time drove architecture.
Earth observation, wildfire, weather, or national security EO/IR mission background.
Active security clearance or eligibility to obtain one.
Prior VP or director-of-directors experience and experience building an organization through rapid growth, including hiring and developing first-time managers.

Responsibilities

Set company EO/IR strategy, including determining which missions and markets Muon pursues in partnership with the executive team and Growth.
Own the multi-year investment plan for instrument technology, lab and test infrastructure, and the organization’s operating budget.
Represent Muon’s EO/IR capability to customers, partners, and the national security community at the executive level.
Be accountable for EO/IR instrument performance, cost, and schedule on every program Muon flies.
Provide credible instrument estimates to program management and proposal teams and deliver against commitments.
Run the portfolio technical review cadence, including requirements, PDR/CDR, test readiness, pre-ship, and on-orbit performance reviews.
Work with the Product Team to define the EO/IR instrument roadmap, including reusable architectures, common focal plane and electronics building blocks, and make/buy strategy for optics, detectors, and cryocoolers.
Hold final technical authority for radiometric performance budgets, calibration approach, and contamination control.
Drive design-for-manufacture so instruments can be built at constellation rates rather than as one-off units.
Hire roughly 20 engineers and managers over the next year while maintaining a high hiring bar.
Develop direct-report managers and create clear career paths for senior individual contributors.
Establish the processes, lab capability, and test infrastructure needed to scale the team.
Partner with Mission Systems on mission requirements and end-to-end performance, and with Production and Supply Chain on transition from development to rate production.
Represent EO/IR instruments to customers, in proposals, and at the Mission Execution leadership table.