Systems Engineer, Spacecraft Operations (RPO)

Anduril Industries is a defense technology company with a mission to transform U.S. and allied military capabilities with advanced technology.

As a Spacecraft Operations Systems Engineer for RPO, you own how our spacecraft plan, rehearse, and fly close to other objects.

Responsibilities

• Design and own RPO mission plans: relative motion design, approach and hold-point sequencing, delta-V budgets, and the timeline that ties them to comm passes, lighting, and ground contact
• Build passive safety into every approach, so that a missed burn, a dropped pass, or an off-nominal state doesn't put the vehicle on a collision trajectory
• Author the flight rules and procedures that govern close approach: keep-out volume enforcement, go/no-go gates, abort and breakout criteria, custody handoffs, and conjunction screening against both the target and third parties
• Own the mission operations plans and procedures for spacecraft programs across all phases, including LEOP, commissioning, on-orbit checkout, and operations
• Drive the pre-launch campaign from the ops side: write and run day-in-the-life and mission rehearsals, inject the failures, and turn every finding into a procedure change or a design change
• Work with AI&T as the operations voice, validating procedures and command sequences on flatsats and hardware-in-the-loop testbeds before they touch flight hardware
• Feed operational constraints back into GNC, flight software, ground software, and comms design
• Create and analyze the metrics used to debug and monitor vehicle and campaign performance
• Triage anomalies, root cause failures, and coordinate next steps under time pressure
• Train operators and mission crews on Anduril spacecraft and on RPO execution specifically
• Support demanding schedules during ground testing, launch windows, and on-orbit operations
• Work with other teams and government agencies to obtain required licenses (FCC, NOAA) and comply with regulations for operating spacecraft, including proximity operations coordination

Required Qualifications

• Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Top Secret security clearance
• Strong engineering background from industry or school, ideally in Aerospace Engineering, Astrodynamics, Computer Science, or another engineering field
• 4+ years of professional spacecraft operations, mission planning, or flight dynamics experience
• Direct RPO experience on a flown or near-flight mission, on either the planning or execution side: relative orbit design, proximity operations trajectory planning, maneuver planning and reconstruction, or close-approach execution on console
• Experience taking a spacecraft through pre-launch operational readiness: AI&T support, procedure validation, mission rehearsals, day-in-the-life testing, and operational readiness reviews
• Ability to quickly understand and navigate complex systems and detailed requirements
• Capable of solving complex technical problems with little oversight
• Clear written communication, including procedures, flight rules, and training material