Senior Satellite & Ground Systems Engineer

The SpaceWrx division of Vantor is developing the next generation of satellite systems, ground infrastructure, and mission operations capabilities that enable responsive, high-performance commercial and national security space missions. The Mission Architecture & Systems Engineering (MASE) team provides technical leadership that transforms mission objectives into integrated, executable system designs spanning spacecraft, payloads, ground systems, software, communications, and operations.

We are seeking an experienced Senior Satellite & Ground Systems Engineer to lead and sustain systems engineering activities across multiple complex space and ground development programs and sustained operational capabilities. This role is responsible for establishing and maintaining the technical foundation of our systems by defining mission concepts, developing Concepts of Operations (ConOps), capturing stakeholder needs, managing system requirements, developing high-level system architecture, and ensuring technical consistency from concept through verification and operational deployment.

Systems engineering at SpaceWrx is fundamentally a technical discipline—not a documentation exercise. Successful engineers actively engage across the entire system lifecycle, collaborate with multidisciplinary engineering teams, and drive architecture, integration, analysis, and technical decision-making. You will work across every phase of the systems engineering “V-model” to ensure mission objectives are translated into implementable designs and ultimately verified through successful system integration, test, and operations.

This role requires a systems thinker who enjoys solving complex multidisciplinary problems, building consensus across engineering organizations, and enabling development teams to execute with clarity, speed, and technical rigor.

Minimum Qualifications

• Must be a U.S. Citizen

• Bachelor’s degree in Systems Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Physics, or a related technical discipline.

• Minimum of 6 years of professional systems engineering experience supporting complex aerospace, defense, robotics, autonomous systems, or other multidisciplinary engineering programs.

• Demonstrated experience developing system architecture from stakeholder needs through implementation and verification.

• Experience developing Concepts of Operations (ConOps), operational scenarios, mission threads, and use cases.

• Experience eliciting, decomposing, allocating, and managing system requirements throughout the development lifecycle.

• Experience developing and maintaining requirements traceability between stakeholder needs, use cases, system requirements, architecture, design artifacts, verification plans, and test results.

• Working knowledge of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) methodologies and SysML.

• Experience participating in architecture development and high-level system design across hardware, software, and operational domains.

• Strong understanding of the complete systems engineering lifecycle, including concept development, architecture, design, implementation, integration, verification, validation, deployment, and sustainment.

• Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively across multiple engineering disciplines and with technical subject matter experts.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate complex technical concepts to diverse engineering audiences.

• Ability to work in a fast-paced, highly collaborative engineering environment while balancing multiple concurrent programs.

Preferred Qualifications

• 10 or more years of professional systems engineering experience supporting spacecraft, satellite constellations, remote sensing systems, ground systems, or mission operations.

• Experience leading systems engineering activities on end-to-end space systems including spacecraft, payloads, communications, ground infrastructure, and mission operations.

• Familiarity with inter-satellite communications including optical crosslink and R/F.

• Experience with MBSE tools such as Cameo Systems Modeler, Enterprise Architect, MagicDraw, or equivalent SysML environments.

• Familiarity and exposure to the Ansys engineering tool suite, including STK.

• Experience with requirements management tools such as IBM DOORS Next, Jama Connect, Polarion, or similar platforms.

• Experience performing functional analysis, interface definition, and system decomposition.

• Experience developing system interface definitions and Interface Control Documents (ICDs).

• Familiarity with digital engineering practices and model-centric development environments and their use across the development lifecycle

• Experience supporting formal systems engineering reviews including SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, and SVR.

• Experience planning or supporting system verification and validation activities, including development of verification methods, test plans, and verification matrices.

• Working knowledge of systems engineering standards such as ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288, the INCOSE Systems Engineering Handbook, or the NASA Systems Engineering Handbook

• Experience supporting agile or iterative development environments while maintaining disciplined systems engineering practices.

• Familiarity with configuration management and engineering change processes.

• Experience with Git, Jira, Confluence, or similar engineering collaboration and development tools.

Successful candidates are technically credible systems engineers who balance architectural thinking with practical execution. They take ownership of complex technical problems, communicate clearly across organizational boundaries, and help engineering teams move quickly without sacrificing rigor. They are comfortable operating across the full systems engineering lifecycle, engaging with stakeholders, defining mission architecture, collaborating with implementation teams, and ensuring that every level of the system remains connected through disciplined traceability.

Within SpaceWrx, systems engineers are expected to lead through technical expertise, initiative, and collaboration. They build bridges between disciplines, make data-driven decisions, continuously improve engineering practices, and help deliver resilient space systems that perform in demanding operational environments.

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