As a Mission Operations Engineer, you will lead field deployments, manage customer relationships, and improve software solutions for critical defense projects.
About Nominal
Nominal is building the software infrastructure that powers the world’s most advanced hardware systems — from spacecraft and autonomous vehicles to next-generation industrial machines. Our platform ingests high-rate telemetry, validates complex autonomy software in real time, and helps engineering teams iterate faster without sacrificing safety or precision. We’re a small, fast-moving team of engineers and operators who own problems end-to-end, work across disciplines, and thrive on solving challenges at the intersection of hardware and software. As a dual-use platform, we're serving top-tier commercial and defense customers, including the U.S. Navy, United States Air Force, Shield AI, and Anduril.
We’re backed by top-tier investors — Sequoia, General Catalyst, Founders Fund, Lux Capital, and Lightspeed Ventures — who share our mission to accelerate innovation in mission-critical systems. Our team brings experience from SpaceX, Palantir, Anduril, Applied Intuition, and other leading companies, united by a common goal: enabling hardware engineers to push the boundaries of advanced technology with speed, safety, and precision.
The Mission Ops role sits at the intersection of field deployment, high-impact customer problem-solving, and software product management. You’ll work closely with customers, iterate on solutions in real-time, and have the opportunity to impact vital systems and technologies across the aerospace and defense sectors.
🫡 About the role
- Own the outcome: From data ingestion to analysis to decisions, own the delivery of high-impact workflows that enable our customers to ship hardware faster and more reliably.
- Collaborate & lead: Interface directly with customers, PMs, and internal engineers to deliver production-ready solutions in fast-turn cycles. Act as a trusted advisor and embedded partner—managing relationships, ensuring satisfaction, and expanding Nominal’s technical and strategic footprint within key defense accounts.
- Train & enable: Guide technical end-users through hands-on training and onboarding—empowering teams to get the most out of the platform.
- Solve in the field: Be a hands-on problem-solver during complex deployments and field operations. You're comfortable working on-site in dynamic, demanding, and sometimes classified environments.
- Drive product improvement: Translate field feedback into actionable feature enhancements and platform improvements.
🎯 What we’re looking for
- Security clearance: Active Top Secret clearance or ability and willingness to obtain one.
- DoD/federal experience: Minimum of 3 years supporting U.S. federal or DoD programs (uniformed, civilian, or contractor).
- Mission-driven, autonomous operator: Experience managing projects end-to-end with minimal oversight, especially in mission-critical contexts. You’ve operated in environments where reliability, latency, and uptime are mission-critical.
- Customer-facing experience: Ability to communicate and collaborate with technical and non-technical stakeholders. Comfort operating autonomously on-site. Able to explain complex technical concepts to a range of audiences—from engineers to program managers.
- Software and data experience: Interest and experience working with data and analytics technologies and scripting (e.g., Python, MATLAB, SQL).
- Hardware engineering background: education and experience in aerospace, mechanical, or electrical engineering.
- Travel ready: Willing to travel up to 25–50% to support field deployments, particularly with government and DoD customers.
⚡ Skills that supercharge us
- Test engineering: Familiarity with DAQs, DDS, telemetry frameworks and protocols (e.g. Ch10, MCAP, HDF5, TDMS). Prior work with test automation, CI/CD for hardware systems, or MIL-STD compliance workflows.
- Data engineering: Proficiency in distributed data systems, DDIL resiliency, time-series data handling, and streaming frameworks (e.g. Kafka, Flink).
🚀 Why Nominal?
- Backed by world-class investors
- Mission-critical impact with high-profile customers
- Work with deeply technical peers from elite engineering backgrounds
- Build real systems that touch rockets, aircraft, and autonomous systems — not just dashboards
✨ Benefits/Perks
- 🏥 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance
- 🏖️ Unlimited PTO and sick leave
- 🍽️ Free lunch, snacks, and coffee
- 🚀 Professional Development Stipend
- ✈️ Annual company retreat
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin.
ITAR Requirements
To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.
Top Skills
Flink
Kafka
Matlab
Python
SQL
Nominal Los Angeles, California, USA Office
Los Angeles, CA, United States
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