{"id":1749568,"url":"https://alion.io/job/darwin-recruitment-senior-spacecraft-engineer","title":"Senior Spacecraft Engineer","company":{"id":2211481,"name":"Darwin Recruitment","domain":"darwinrecruitment.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/darwinrecruitment","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":null,"truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":8,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":1,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":null,"computed_at":"2026-10-25T05:49:26Z"}},"role":"Aerospace","role_family":"Aerospace","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"inferred","locations":[],"countries":[],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":146200,"max":215000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":215000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":14,"visa_sponsorship":true,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-08-04T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-20","last_verified_at":"2026-10-03T16:17:12Z","board_verified":false,"closed_at":null,"days_open":82,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":82},"description":"Senior Spacecraft Command and Data Handling (C&DH) Engineer\nLos Angeles, CA | Level 4: $146,200 to $215,000 | Level 5: $176,800 to $260,000\nYou have architected enough avionics to know when a design is wrong. This role lets you say so and be listened to.\nThis is a technical authority position on the C&DH and electrical hardware architectures behind small satellites built for national security missions. Missile warning. Earth observation. Work that gets watched at government level.\nWe are hiring for a small satellite company that moves at startup pace but sits inside one of the world’s largest aerospace and defence groups. That combination is the point. You get the autonomy and the speed of a small team, with the programme volume and the funding stability that comes from the parent business.\nThey are hiring at two levels. Level 4 is technical leadership on specific programmes, acting as the subject matter expert on C&DH, running the trade studies and holding technical oversight through integration and test. Level 5 is broader, setting technical strategy across the whole C&DH group, establishing engineering practice, defining roadmaps and building the next generation of engineers.\nWhat you will own\nArchitect C&DH subsystems that shape system level design decisions and meet mission, constraint and fault management requirements\nLead avionics architecture selection and trade analysis, balancing performance, power, mass and cost\nDrive requirements definition, interface control documents and verification activities\nDirect high fidelity analysis across data budgets, signal integrity, clock drift, jitter and EMI/EMC compatibility\nOwn vendor selection and make or buy recommendations, weighing technical risk, schedule, cost and lifecycle support\nLead resolution of complex avionics and electrical hardware issues through design, integration and test\nContribute to fault detection, isolation and recovery strategy so architectures stay resilient, and support mission operations and system health assessment\nMentor engineers at earlier career stages and grow the group’s capability\nWhat you will need\nA bachelor’s degree in electrical, computer or aerospace engineering or a related discipline, plus 9 or more years of relevant experience, or an equivalent mix of technical education and experience\n9 or more years with spacecraft communication protocols such as SpaceWire, Ethernet, RS422, RS485 and LVDS\n7 or more years designing, analysing and integrating spacecraft electrical hardware or complex avionics systems\nThe ability to obtain a US Security Clearance, which requires US citizenship\nComfort working with a high degree of autonomy, and the ability to explain technical concepts clearly to technical and non technical audiences\nWhat lifts an application\nFor Level 5, 14 or more years of relevant experience or an equivalent mix of education and experience\nTime as a Responsible Engineering Authority or lead engineer on complex space programmes\nFamiliarity with industry standards and government cybersecurity practice for space assets\nExperience in high rate manufacturing environments\nA master’s or PhD in a relevant engineering discipline\nStrong communication and presentation skills\nThe practical detail\nThis role is export controlled and clearance bearing, so applicants must be US citizens and eligible for a security clearance, and must be willing to apply for and maintain one. There is no visa sponsorship and no relocation assistance on this position. Successful candidates go through a conflict of interest assessment, and the company operates a drug free workplace with post offer testing.\nPay is set on experience, qualifications and market. The ranges above are base salary and sit alongside variable compensation and a range of benefit programmes, with eligibility depending on factors such as location and hire date.\nApply\nSend your resume through this advert and we will come back with the full company details and process. Darwin Space is a specialist space industry recruitment firm. All applications are treated in confidence.\nDarwin Recruitment is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.\nAdam Slade","description_format":"text","description_chars":4166,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":14,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Relocation assistance"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":true,"industries":["Biotechnology","Recruiting & Staffing","Employer of Record & PEO"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-03T07:59:00Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":6,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":0.4,"p_active":0.564,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":82,"expected_fill_days":27,"reasons":["conf:517","urgency","velocity","win:tail","crowd:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-10-25T05:49:26Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":215000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/darwin-recruitment-senior-spacecraft-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/darwin-recruitment-senior-spacecraft-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-25T10:54:40Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":15576,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-26T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":2211481},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=2211481"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fdarwin-recruitment-senior-spacecraft-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fdarwin-recruitment-senior-spacecraft-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fdarwin-recruitment-senior-spacecraft-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/darwin-recruitment-senior-spacecraft-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fdarwin-recruitment-senior-spacecraft-engineer"}]}