End-to-End Systems Engineering Lead

$174,585 - $244,419/Yr

Blue Origin - Seattle, WA

Full-time - Senior

Seattle, WA

Transportation Equipment Manufacturing

About the position

At Blue Origin, we envision millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. We're working to develop reusable, safe, and low-cost space vehicles and systems within a culture of safety, collaboration, and inclusion. Join our diverse team of problem solvers as we add new chapters to the history of spaceflight! The role is part of the In-Space Systems business unit, which is focused on the development, manufacturing, and operation of satellite systems to address one of the most compelling challenges in spaceflight today: space mobility. As part of a hardworking team of diverse specialists, technicians, and engineers, you provide leadership across organizations, working end-to-end across payload, vehicle, and ground elements to define advanced secure communications solutions. The End-to-End Systems Engineering Lead is responsible for end-to-end system design 'down-and-in' across a complex system of space and ground, and cradle-to-grave oversight of the solution lifecycle. You will lead a modern multi-discipline team in the development of systems architecture products, allocation of functionality and capability across major system elements, development of system-level requirements, definition of interfaces between space elements, ground elements, and external systems, and fostering implementation, integration, and test activities. We're looking for someone to apply their technical expertise, leadership skills, and commitment to quality; to join our team and positively impact the future of space. Passion for our mission and vision is required. Successful candidates will have a technical background, be detail-driven, and have excellent problem-solving abilities. You should be passionate about delivering extensible, timely solutions while contributing to the development of high-performance teams through meticulous goal-setting, disciplined attention to performance metrics, and continuous process improvement. If you're excited about providing near-term value, solving novel problems, learning about exciting topics, and completing challenging activities, please apply!

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with customers, team members, systems engineering, architecture, hardware, and software teams to ensure cross-functional deliverables are identified and tracked
• Design and develop an end-to-end system architecture that details how architectural elements are defined, implemented, deployed, and maintained across Space and Ground elements
• Coordinate and provide direction across diverse engineering teams to successful project execution by offering solutions that are imaginative, thorough, predictable, and consistent with organizational objectives
• Establish goals and metrics to find opportunities to deliver customer solutions to cost, performance, and schedule requirements
• Serve as a communication system focal throughout the program lifecycle as systems are developed, championing the conceptual vision and adapting it to reality
• Mentor and train across the program to ensure approach, philosophy, and technology are understood and implemented, so they provide required capabilities and value to our customers

Requirements

• B.S. in Aerospace, Software, Electrical, Mechanical, Physics, Systems Engineering, or related technical subject area
• 10+ years of Technical Experience developing Space Communications systems and their ground systems
• 10+ years of Technical Experience in the Communications domain, spanning the complete OSI stack, including but not limited to communications theory, frequency and bandwidth selection, modulation, encoding, transport protocols and standards (including CCSDS), application protocol and packet definition (file transfer, commanding, telemetry, command assurance), and communications security
• Strong skills with tools used in communications access modeling and contact analysis (experience using STK or similar tools to support site selection, mission satisfaction, etc.)
• Strong background developing communication system CONOPs, requirements, and interface description documents to flow to element-level teams
• Strong experience developing communications link budgets to predict link closure, link quality, and effective data rates. Ability to identify and manage risks against system performance
• Experience developing high-level plans for end-to-end integrated system tests occurring throughout a program's lifecycle
• Familiarity with NIST Confidentiality, Integrity and Availability (CIA Triad) standards to maintain Moderate to High information security
• Familiarity with data framing and space-to-ground security data protocols (i.e. CCSDS) to support security data link layer and routing capabilities
• Outstanding customer relationship skills including the ability to discover the requirements underlying feature requests, recommend alternative technical and business approaches, and lead engineering efforts to meet ambitious timelines with optimal solutions
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum

Nice-to-haves

• Experience developing in-space network planning and scheduling tools and on-board routing algorithms
• Experience modeling, simulating, and analyzing networks to assess utilization, latency, and capacity statistics and identify bottlenecks
• Experience designing space vehicle and terrestrial network architecture, including IP routing, gateways, VPNs, NAT, and other critical networking concepts
• Experience designing and characterizing gimballed communications systems
• Experience implementing IP protocols over conventional Space to Ground (ex. CCSDS, IPSec) links
• Ability to define command and telemetry database processes capturing space to ground interfaces and exchanges, and lead element level teams in implementation and management of critical space to ground interfaces

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision, basic and supplemental life insurance
• Paid parental leave
• Short and long-term disability
• 401(k) with a company match of up to 5%
• Education Support Program
• Paid Time Off: Up to four (4) weeks per year based on weekly scheduled hours, and up to 14 company-paid holidays
• Discretionary bonus: Bonuses are designed to reward individual contributions as well as allow employees to share in company results