Staff Mission Lead Systems Engineer
South Park Commons is a venture capital firm and community for founders and technologists exploring what to build next. It operates member residencies and founder fellowships, provides community and programming, and invests $1 million to $10 million in ambitious early-stage companies.
About South Park Commons
South Park Commons supports founders, researchers, and technologists during the stage from pre-idea to early conviction. Its six-month Member Residency provides a talent-dense community, learning forums, workshops, events, collaboration, and social support at hubs in San Francisco, New York City, and Bengaluru. Its Founder Fellowship and venture fund provide capital and hands-on partner support, including initial investments of $1 million to $10 million, for founders building venture-scale companies. SPC invests across a broad portfolio of technology companies and supports founders through later stages.
Skills
About the Role
You will partner with the Mission Architecture team during early mission formulation, shaping technical concepts, driving architecture trades, and developing requirements baselines for prospective missions. When a mission you helped formulate is selected, you will become its Mission Lead Systems Engineer, owning end-to-end technical success from concept through on-orbit operations. You will be the primary technical interface with customers, develop requirements and ICDs, perform system modeling, create test plans with AI&T teams, and reduce program risk. You will monitor on-orbit spacecraft and data pipelines, lead design and readiness reviews, and provide technical direction across systems, hardware, software, data, ground segment, and operations teams.
Requirements
- B.S. or higher degree in an engineering field
- 10+ years of experience in complex system, mission architecture, and/or spacecraft design
- Demonstrated experience as a technical lead (e.g., Chief Engineer, Lead Systems Engineer) on at least one complex system design
- Experience with major space programs for USG, DoD, IC, and/or commercial customers
- Experience with USG/IC acquisition programs, space systems development standards, and mission assurance standards
- Strong understanding of USG/IC contracts and their artifacts
- Experience supporting proposal development (RFI/RFP responses) for government contracts
- Extensive experience in system modeling, systems analysis, and running simulations
- Proven history of system integration and delivery of complex systems
- Experience in formal requirements management for a multi-disciplinary project
- Demonstrated project management skills and cross-disciplinary collaboration
- Excellent communication, presentation, and coordination skills
- Active TS/SCI security clearance
Responsibilities
- Partner with the Mission Architecture team to develop mission concepts, run architecture trade studies, and shape technical baselines for prospective missions and proposal responses
- Develop and maintain mission-level system models including architecture, requirements, interfaces, and behavior models
- Serve as the ultimate technical authority for the designated mission, driving cross-functional technical trades and decisions
- Lead the tailoring and implementation of the mission design process and contribute to process refinement across all missions
- Translate customer objectives and stakeholder needs into clear, verifiable, and actionable technical requirements
- Serve as the primary technical point of contact interfacing with customers, partners, and internal stakeholders
- Manage requirements traceability, verification, and validation
- Define mission CONOPS and manage subsystem budgets such as power, data, mass, and pointing/stability
- Identify and mitigate internal and external mission risks and communicate impacts effectively
- Assess and coordinate design changes across disciplines throughout the program lifecycle
- Lead design, test readiness, and flight readiness reviews
- Monitor on-orbit spacecraft and data pipelines to ensure mission success and customer requirements are met
- Provide technical direction to systems, hardware, software, data, ground segment, and operations teams
- Deputize for other Mission Lead Systems Engineers and contribute systems engineering expertise across missions
- Contribute to continuous improvement of engineering processes, tools, and methodologies
Benefits
- Equity compensation
- Medical, dental, and vision insurance
- 401k retirement plan
- Short and long term disability insurance
- Life insurance
- Three weeks paid vacation
- 12 paid holidays
- Unlimited sick time
- Paid parental leave
- Remote work option
