Spacecraft System Safety & Mission Assurance Engineer

Space Kinetic • El Segundo, CA

10d • Remote

About The Position

Space Kinetic is a dual use space technology startup building a completely new architecture for space operations – one that brings the advantages of proliferated drone technology (low-cost, operationally flexible, attainable, distributed) to space missions while reducing the ecosystem's reliance on consumable fuel. In a world where many companies are focused on incrementally improving the status quo, we are focused on creating something entirely different – an architecture underpinned by new first principles to meet the opportunities and challenges of the third space age head-on. Our goal is to move away from one-to-one space architectures – where each satellite in a constellation has one (or a small # of) primary payloads attached to the bus -- and unlock a ‘one-to-many’ system, where each satellite has a large number of payloads which can be deployed from their host spacecraft at high velocities without firing a thruster. This is not a role for someone looking for a traditional 40-hour work week. Space Kinetic is building ambitious, first-of-its-kind technology, and that requires urgency, ownership, and a high level of commitment to changing the foundational assumptions for everything we do in space.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering, systems engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, computer engineering, or a related technical field.
• 3–7 years of relevant experience in spacecraft, launch vehicles, aerospace systems, autonomous systems, or other complex safety-critical systems.
• Experience in system safety, reliability, fault management, mission assurance, or spacecraft systems engineering.
• Working knowledge of spacecraft subsystem interactions and end-to-end space vehicle operations.
• Experience developing or assessing fault detection, isolation, recovery, safing, or fault-tolerant system behavior.
• Familiarity with functional hazard assessments, fault tree analyses, failure modes and effects analyses, or similar risk-analysis methods.
• Experience developing, reviewing, or verifying technical requirements and resolving multidisciplinary technical issues.
• Strong technical writing, communication, and engineering judgment, including the ability to make risk-informed recommendations with incomplete or evolving information.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with range safety and AFSPCMAN 91-710 requirements.
• Experience developing space-rating assessments and mitigation strategies for commercial off-the-shelf components.
• Experience with low Earth orbit radiation environments, associated failure modes, and mitigation strategies.
• Experience developing spacecraft-level fault management, autonomous safing, mode management, or mission-recovery architectures.
• Experience with fault injection, hardware-in-the-loop testing, Monte Carlo analysis, or integrated mission simulations.
• Familiarity with government space mission assurance and experience supporting NASA, the Department of Defense, the Intelligence Community, or other U.S. government space programs.
• Experience with MBSE and requirements-management tools such as Cameo, MagicDraw, SysML, DOORS, or Jama.
• Active or previously held U.S. government security clearance.

Responsibilities

• Lead and support spacecraft system safety assessments, hazard analyses, fault tree analyses, failure modes and effects analyses, and other safety and risk analyses.
• Identify hazard causes, controls, verification methods, residual risks, single-point failures, common-cause failures, and cascading failures.
• Develop fault-protection concepts and requirements, including fault detection, isolation, containment, recovery, safing, and mission-recovery strategies.
• Evaluate spacecraft responses to off-nominal conditions and coordinate fault-management approaches across flight software, avionics, subsystem controllers, and mission operations.
• Translate safety and mission assurance objectives into clear, verifiable system and subsystem requirements.
• Evaluate spacecraft modes, autonomy logic, command paths, operational constraints, and architecture trades for safety and mission risk.
• Define and support verification of hazard controls and fault-protection requirements through analysis, test, simulation, and fault injection.
• Review requirements, designs, test plans, waivers, deviations, and anomaly dispositions for safety and mission assurance impacts.
• Support anomaly investigations, root cause analyses, corrective actions, design reviews, readiness reviews, and customer safety reviews.
• Maintain traceability between hazards, controls, requirements, design features, procedures, and verification evidence while integrating Quality Management System tracking with engineering design systems.

Benefits

• The annual base salary for this role is below. Pay Grades are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual pay will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: interviews and an assessment of several factors that are unique to each candidate, job-related skills, relevant education/experience, certifications, abilities of the candidate and internal equity.

What This Job Offers

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