Chief Engineer, Space Domain Awareness
Turion is developing the critical infrastructure of the space economy. We're doing this by building vertically integrated hardware and software: DROID, our line of space vehicles, and Starfire, our software suite covering simulation, modeling, planning, and operations. We're a group of people who fell in love with the future sci-fi promised us, and we're building it into reality. We build hard things. We build them well. And we're just getting started.
We are seeking an exceptional Program Chief Engineer to act as technical lead for missions relying on highly maneuverable and agile small satellites, beginning with the GEO Space Domain Awareness mission set. This senior technical leadership role owns technical architecture and baseline across all facets of the mission. The Program Chief Engineer ensures that all aspects of the mission, from requirements decomposition and traceability to mission capability verification, are properly defined, progressed, and documented to meet both customer and mission success criteria.
Key Responsibilities
Program Chief Engineering Leadership
Serve as technical lead and authority for assigned programs, owning end-to-end satellite architecture and ensuring appropriate technical progress throughout the program lifecycle
Drive resolution of complex cross-disciplinary technical issues, making authoritative architectural decisions that balance performance, cost, and schedule
Lead teams through all technical milestones including, SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, and PSR, and post-launch operations
Interact directly with customers and suppliers as the primary technical point of contact to ensure mission success
Mission Definition & Technical Baseline
Own and maintain system-level budgets ensuring the technical baseline demonstrably meets requirements and technical performance measures (mass, power, delta-V, pointing, data, link, MTF, etc.)
Work alongside mission stakeholders to define and refine mission CONOPS, translating operational needs into rigorous system-level requirements
Lead derivation and maintenance of system requirements, ensuring full traceability from mission-level objectives through system, subsystem, and component requirements
Ensure requirements decomposition is executed correctly and that traceability is maintained throughout the entire technical baseline
Requirements Traceability & Compliance
Establish and maintain robust requirements traceability frameworks to satisfy customer compliance documentation expectations
Author and oversee Interface Control Documents (ICDs) and all systems engineering documentation required for program compliance
Define and execute verification and validation plans (test, demonstration, analysis, inspection) at system and subsystem levels
Track system compliance and overall performance against mission needs, proactively identifying and resolving gaps
Stakeholder & Team Leadership
Provide top-level technical leadership across the entire mission lifecycle, including space and ground segments, from proposal and concept through design, manufacturing, test, and operations
Collaborate with and guide multi-disciplinary engineering experts across all subsystems
Work with internal and external stakeholders to ensure mission CONOPS alignment and technical coherence
Mentor senior and mid-level systems engineers, elevating team-wide systems engineering discipline
Minimum Qualifications
Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a related field
12+ years of experience in spacecraft systems engineering or spacecraft design, with hands-on experience in satellite design and integration, OR 8+ years of experience with direct experience in relevant mission areas.
Demonstrated experience serving as a Chief Program Engineer or lead systems engineer on a complete spacecraft program
Deep expertise in requirements derivation, decomposition, and traceability from mission level through subsystems
Proven ability to own and maintain all system-level budgets (mass, power, delta-V, pointing, link, data) across the full project lifecycle