Senior Launch Mission Manager

K2 Space • Los Angeles, CA

1d

About The Position

K2 is building the largest and highest-power satellites ever flown, unlocking performance levels previously out of reach across every orbit. Backed by $450M from leading investors including Altimeter Capital, Redpoint Ventures, T. Rowe Price, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Alpine Space Ventures, and others – with an additional $500M in signed contracts across commercial and US government customers – we’re mass-producing the highest-power satellite platforms ever built for missions from LEO to deep space. The rise of heavy-lift launch vehicles is shifting the industry from an era of mass constraint to one of mass abundance, and we believe this new era demands a fundamentally different class of spacecraft. Engineered to survive the harshest radiation environments and to fully capitalize on today’s and tomorrow’s massive rockets, K2 satellites deliver unmatched capability at constellation scale and across multiple orbits. With multiple launches planned through 2026 and 2027, we're Building Bigger to develop the solar system and become a Kardashev Type II (K2) civilization. If you are a motivated individual who thrives in a fast-paced environment and you're excited about contributing to the success of a groundbreaking Series C space startup, we’d love for you to apply. The Role K2 has a large set of customer and launch partners, ranging from rideshare hosted payloads to full constellation scale roll out, spanning multiple launch vehicles, procurement methods, licensing methods, and launch sites. We are looking for exceptional individuals to support all of these customer and launch partner interfaces. As a launch mission manager, you will be hands-on supporting payload, vehicle, and launch integration certification, verification, and execution actions. You’ll own certification across multiple threads, also working closely with our internal design reliability, program managers, and leadership team. You’ll be an advocate for K2 and our customer pushing for simplification of process, implementation of lessons learned, and state of the art certification methods to enable our constellation level roll outs. You’ll work with our legal teams to enable appropriate licensing and insurance closure. You’ll work with our engineering teams to feed back best-practices and lessons learned from integrated spacecraft testing to optimize future payload missions. You’ll work with all teams to help ensure successful spaceflight outcomes. In this position you’ll be the voice of K2 in multiple forums and efforts – ultimately being responsible for ensuring there are no certification, verification, or execution show-stoppers on day of payload integration, spacecraft testing, or launch.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, physics, or science
• 5+ years of experience in technical aerospace or manufacturing
• 2+ years of experience managing projects, technical trades, and/or technical teams
• Strong understanding of launch vehicles, spacecraft, or other aerospace systems and their certification and/or verification processes
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills

Nice To Haves

• Master’s degree or PhD in an engineering or science discipline
• 8+ years of experience in technical aerospace or manufacturing
• 4+ years of experience managing projects or technical trades
• Active Top Secret or TS/SCI clearance
• Experience leading Spacecraft qualification, verification, or certification efforts for single or constellation level projects
• Experience working with payload or launch provider contracts and SOWs
• Proven ability to innovate in process improvement and lessons learned processes
• Skilled in generating executive summaries to drive decision making through senior leadership discussions
• Demonstrated track record of project ownership, responsibility for execution, and successful outcomes
• Ability to travel up to 25% of the time

Responsibilities

• Function as K2 point of contact for all things related to certification, to include range safety compliance, launch vehicle user guide compliance, ground operations plan, payload certification plan, customer to launch provider interactions, and qualification reports
• Serve as launch provider point of contact, helping ensure launch vehicle ICDs are closed and verified, launch operations plan is robust, and the mission executes flawlessly
• Serve as payload provider point of contact in certification forums, ensuring payload meets all applicable requirements from both K2 and the launch provider
• Support payload integration readiness reviews, pre-ship reviews, launch and flight readiness reviews, in various capacities
• Review and help shape future customer and launch vehicle contracts and SOWs
• Shape our certification process for all of the above, helping come up with new methods for K2 to increase velocity

Benefits

• Base salary range for this role is $140,000 - $175,000 + equity in the company
• Comprehensive benefits package including paid time off, medical/dental/vision coverage, life insurance, paid parental leave, and many other perks

What This Job Offers

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