Staff Mission Manager

Position Overview: 

As a Mission Manager, you will serve as the primary engineering and programmatic point of contact for customers from early capabilities studies through launch, on-orbit operations, re-entry, and recovery. You will support new business proposals by leading initial requirements verification, mission design, vehicle development, and testing. You will work directly with the engineering team from diverse fields to quickly iterate on solutions and ensure customer requirements are met. 

Key Responsibilities: 

• Lead technical and programmatic execution from contract award through integration, integrated test, launch, operations, and re-entry, ensuring all contract requirements are met. 
• Serve as the primary technical authority for the mission, deeply understanding the vehicle’s design, constraints, and subsystem dependencies (e.g., GNC, thermal protection systems, propulsion, avionics). 
• Support proposal efforts to align new missions with long-term strategic vision, ensuring complex contract requirements are executable. 
• Interface with internal engineering, production, and mission assurance teams to drive technical closure, anomaly resolution, and on-time mission success. 
• Collaborate with engineering to evaluate vehicle readiness, performing risk and trade studies on how changes impact system requirements, margin, and launch schedules. 
• Work with the customer to mitigate and resolve technical and programmatic issues that arise with a success-oriented approach and resolution. 
• Manage multiple programs and competing technical priorities concurrently. 

Required Qualifications: 

• Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related technical discipline. 
• Typically 8+ years of direct engineering experience within launch vehicles, reentry systems, or hypersonic flight regimes, with a proven track record of leading complex aerospace projects or systems engineering blocks. 
• Technical understanding of aerodynamics, aerothermal environments, high-temperature structures, or precision recovery operations. 
• Experience acting as the primary technical and programmatic interface of a program to an external customer or government stakeholder. 
• Proven ability to bridge the gap between business objectives and hardware engineering constraints in a fast-paced environment. 
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, with a demonstrated ability to author technical interface control documents (ICDs) and complex verification plans. 
• Must have the ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government Secret/Top Secret security clearance.

Desired Qualifications: 

• Master’s degree in an engineering discipline. 
• Direct experience managing complex technical acquisitions or mission integration milestones with government agencies (e.g., DoD, NASA, FAA-AST). 
• 12+ years of applicable aerospace experience spanning both hands-on hardware development and technical leadership. 
• Strong interpersonal skills, with a proven ability to challenge technical assumptions constructively and align multi-disciplinary engineering teams toward mission-critical milestones. 

Our office headquarters is located in Playa Vista, CA. This position requires in office presence.

The California annual base salary for this role is currently $161,000 - $221,000.  Pay Grades are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data.  Individual pay will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: interviews and an assessment of several factors that are unique to each candidate, job-related skills, relevant education and experience, certifications, abilities of the candidate and internal equity.