Systems Engineer III

ABOUT

As an end-to-end responsive space company, Firefly Aerospace is on a mission to enable our world to launch, land, and operate in space – anywhere, anytime. Our small- to medium-lift launch vehicles, lunar landers, and orbital vehicles allow us to service the entire lifecycle of government and commercial missions from low Earth orbit to the Moon and beyond. We utilize carbon composite structures, patented propulsion technologies, and common components across our vehicles to iterate quickly, improve reliability, and deliver payloads at a lower cost.

SUMMARY

We welcome you to join Firefly as a Spacecraft Systems Engineer, to leverage your creative and technical expertise for the development of Blue Ghost and Elytra spacecraft over the product lifecycle from concept through fabrication, test & flight. You will work with design engineering, manufacturing, integration, test and launch teams to ensure the production of a thoroughly tested, operationally efficient and reliable vehicle that meets system level requirements. The Systems Engineering team is accountable for requirements, interfaces, and test planning - it will be your responsibility to validate the system architecture, manage technical budgets and design configuration between departments, develop test plans, ensure verification of requirements, and support mission operations. You will be expected to be able to speak knowledgeably about the current system configuration and provide status updates on performance, changes, schedule, and risks. It will be your job to translate program plan and engineering team’s vision into system level success. A successful candidate will be a self-starter, elevate their teammates and be passionate about the space industry.

RESPONSIBILITIES

To deliver a robust, reliable, and economical product successfully completing all mission requirements by...

• Creating and maintain system-level designs, schematics, interface control documents and performance budgets including fluid, electrical, and software architectures.
  • e.g. ICDs, ConOps, States & Modes, Sequence Diagrams, FBD, Boundary Diagrams, Grounding/Bonding Diagrams, Mass/Power/Link/dV/etc Budgets
• Owning requirements development/flowdown, subsystem interfaces, and vehicle level test plans. Reviewing all test plans for your vehicle.
• Leading system-level trades, design reviews, and data reviews for your vehicle.
  • Accountable for delivery of SRR, and PDR, responsible for providing critical inputs to CDR, MRR, TRR, and LRR.
• Being accountable for the resolution of any issue, failure, or NCR that impacts closure of your test plans. Includes root cause analysis and issuing of corrective actions.
• Facilitating the change control board, risk review board, deliverable tracking and effort estimates for your vehicle.
• Maintaining a strong rapport with the manufacturing and integration technicians, understanding their challenges and proposing upstream opportunities for improvement.
• Traveling to support offsite testing.
• Serving as surge capacity for the operations team during demanding missions and supporting 12 hour shifts during lunar mission operations.
• Maintaining calm under pressure, and fostering a positive, professional, and respectful working environment.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required

• BS in Aerospace Engineering or related engineering discipline required
• 5+ years of focused hands-on experience in an interdisciplinary project management or execution role on spacecraft, equivalent work will be considered.
• Firm comprehension and demonstrated application of first principles in engineering disciplines (orbital mechanics, controls, mechanical, structural dynamics, electrical, mechatronics, materials, thermodynamics, fluid dynamics, and propulsion).

• Experience leading interdisciplinary project teams of including hardware and software engineers.

• Strong working knowledge of ASME, MIL, ASTM, and/or NASA Standards, as well as Systems Engineering best practices – able to adapt processes to meet the needs of the team.
• Exceptional communication (written and verbal), public speaking and presentation skills.

Desired

• Experience through the full lifecycle of a spacecraft mission from SRR to mission operations.

• Strong working knowledge of GNC analysis and cislunar mission planning.
• Strong working knowledge of the lunar surface environment and robotics.
• MS or PhD in Aerospace/Mechanical Engineering or equivalent technical field.
• Strong working knowledge of real time visual navigation systems for autonomous control.
• Experience designing spacecraft architectures or critical subsystems for reliability and radiation resiliency.
• Strong working knowledge of fabrication and assembly methodologies, production management tools, and quality control processes.
• Experience tailoring SMC/AFSPCM/91-710 equivalent range documents; understanding, documenting and resolving the technical implications and risks associated with the tailoring.
• Experienced on Agile Project Management using Atlassian tools (JIRA, confluence, bitbucket)
• PMP or equivalent project management experience