Senior Lead Systems Engineer

Moog•Arvada, CO

4d•$145,000 - $210,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Moog’s Space and Defense Group is seeking an experienced Senior Lead Systems Engineer to join its Space Vehicles team in Arvada, Colorado. The team works across the spacecraft lifecycle, from conceptual design through development, integration, testing, and delivery. Applications include spacecraft buses, smart upper stages, in-space transfer vehicles, and hosted payload platforms. The role serves as the technical authority for a spacecraft bus program, working closely with a multidisciplinary engineering team and reporting to the Systems Engineering Manager. The position is hybrid and follows a 9/80 schedule, with every other Friday off. It also supports new-business pursuits and customer engagements. The position requires access to U.S. export-controlled information.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in aerospace, mechanical, electrical, or systems engineering, or a related technical discipline.
At least 7 years of relevant aerospace engineering experience, including spacecraft or similarly complex mission-critical systems.
Experience leading spacecraft payload, bus, or space-vehicle-level systems engineering across multiple lifecycle phases.
Strong understanding of spacecraft architectures, subsystem interactions, requirements management, interface control, technical budgets, and verification.
Experience leading multidisciplinary trade studies, integration activities, technical risk management, design reviews, system testing, and anomaly resolution.
Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams and make sound technical decisions while balancing performance, risk, cost, and schedule.
Experience with requirements management, configuration management, analysis, modeling, or engineering collaboration tools.
Experience leading technical teams, design reviews, supplier oversight, trade studies, and anomaly investigations.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, including presenting technical information to multidisciplinary teams, leadership, customers, and suppliers.
Ability to support occasional travel and off-shift testing and support when required.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree or doctorate in aerospace, systems engineering, or a related discipline.
At least 12 years of spacecraft engineering experience, including service as a lead systems engineer, spacecraft bus lead, or chief engineer.
Experience taking a spacecraft through design, integration, environmental testing, launch, commissioning, or on-orbit operations.
Technical depth in one or more spacecraft subsystems, such as GN&C, electrical power, avionics, flight software, propulsion, thermal, structures, or communications.
Experience with model-based systems engineering (MBSE) or SysML.
Familiarity with NASA, Department of Defense, Space Force, ECSS, AIAA, or commercial spacecraft standards and mission-assurance practices.
Experience with reliability and safety analyses, fault management, redundancy, radiation effects, and single-point-failure assessments.
Experience managing suppliers, launch vehicle interfaces, payload integration, and ground or mission-operations interfaces.
Experience supporting business development, capture, proposals, customer presentations, technical volumes, and basis-of-estimate development.

Responsibilities

Serve as the technical lead and systems engineering authority for the spacecraft bus throughout the program lifecycle.
Lead spacecraft architecture, requirements development and allocation, design trades, technical baselines, and system-level decisions.
Direct cross-functional integration of spacecraft bus subsystems, including structures, thermal, power, avionics, flight software, GN&C, propulsion, communications, and harnessing.
Define and manage interfaces among the spacecraft bus, payload, launch vehicle, ground segment, mission operations, customers, and suppliers.
Lead technical gate reviews and maintain system requirements, verification plans, interface documentation, technical budgets, performance margins, and configuration baselines.
Oversee customer deliverables and author fault management, reliability, survivability, compliance matrix, and bus user’s guide materials.
Coordinate risk management, issue resolution, anomaly investigations, and design or test corrective actions.
Develop and oversee spacecraft assembly, integration, verification, and validation strategies, including environmental and end-to-end testing.
Work with engineering leads to ensure designs comply with mission, customer, safety, reliability, quality, regulatory, and mission-assurance requirements.
Coordinate technical execution with program leadership, customers, suppliers, payload teams, launch providers, manufacturing, and test organizations.
Mentor engineers and subsystem leads, and communicate technical status, risks, decisions, and recommendations.
Support new-business pursuits by developing mission concepts, spacecraft architectures, technical solutions, compliance assessments, risk evaluations, cost and schedule inputs, proposal content, statements of work, and customer presentations.
Participate in customer engagements, capture activities, proposal reviews, and technical interchange meetings.
Improve systems engineering processes, tools, standards, and lessons learned.