{"id":2984878,"url":"https://alion.io/job/firefly-aerospace-chief-engineer-launch-vehicles","title":"Chief Engineer, Launch Vehicles","company":{"id":63753,"name":"Firefly Aerospace","domain":"fireflyspace.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/firefly-aerospace-com","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":null},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","seniority":"head","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Cedar Park, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":109000,"max_usd":211000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":628},"experience_years_min":8,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"AS9100","optional":false},{"name":"Bitbucket","optional":false},{"name":"Confluence","optional":false},{"name":"Jira","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-20T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-20","last_verified_at":"2026-10-21T19:55:51Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":1,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":1},"description":"ABOUT FIREFLY AEROSPACE\nFirefly Aerospace is a space and defense technology company that enables our world to launch, land, and operate in space - anywhere, anytime. As the partner of choice for critical space missions, Firefly is the only commercial company to launch a satellite to orbit with 24-hour notice and the only company to achieve a successful Moon landing. Our launch vehicles, lunar landers, and orbital vehicles provide government and commercial customers with full mission services from low Earth orbit to the Moon and beyond. Headquartered in north Austin, Texas, Firefly is looking for passionate, hardworking innovators to join our team and help fuel our successful trajectory into space.\nSUMMARY\nChief Engineering serves as the technical cornerstone of Firefly's space ecosystem vision, defining vehicle-level architecture and capabilities that reliably deliver missions from the surface of the Earth to the Moon and beyond. Chief Engineers are charged with integrating cutting-edge technologies with disciplined risk management to ensure mission success while maintaining the highest standards of engineering excellence. As guardians of Firefly's technical integrity, Chief Engineers bridge the gap between visionary concepts and operational reality, empowering our company to enable our world to launch, land, and operate in space. Anytime. Anywhere.\nIn this role, you will lead interdisciplinary optimization for your assigned program, serving as the customer-facing technical point of contact throughout the full mission lifecycle. You'll conduct system-level trades, analyze system commodity budgets, and develop innovative solutions that enhance vehicle capabilities. As the primary technical authority, you will ensure robust engineering rationale underpins all vehicle-level decisions, ultimately enabling Firefly to achieve its mission of making space accessible through reliable, innovative transportation systems. Based at our Cedar Park headquarters, this position requires regular presence at our Production and Test facility in Briggs, TX as well as periodic travel to launch sites in Vandenberg, CA and Wallops Island, VA.\nRESPONSIBILITIES\nDefine vehicle-level architecture, capabilities, specifications, operations, and interdisciplinary optimization in alignment with Firefly objectives\nInfluence and direct configuration requirements by conducting, evaluating, and leading system-level trades to drive innovation in vehicle design and functionality\nAnalyze and optimize mass, performance, power, and data budgets, ensuring technical feasibility and operational success\nChair vehicle-level design and milestone reviews, holding the team to the Firefly and Program standards to meet the risk posture of the program\nDevelop innovative solutions for vehicle design and operations, integrating modern technologies to improve program capabilities\nIdentify creative ways to achieve standardization and commonality of component selection and integrated system designs across Firefly programs/product lines\nOwn the technical risk posture for assigned program/product and missions as the authority for vehicle risk\nActively reduce system vulnerabilities though robust root cause investigation, change management, corrective action, and risk mitigation/verification plans\nReview and validate designs, work instructions, nonconformances, test plans, and test procedures across sub-systems\nManage program risks by identifying, mitigating, and tracking potential technical issues, while enabling cross-department/program communication of impacts risks and associated changes\nProvide real time (on-console) support for integrated test and launch operations, working to resolve live anomalies during mission operations\nLead interdisciplinary efforts in coordination with Business Development, Engineering, Program Management, and Operations for your assigned program/product\nCollaborate with Production, Integration, and Quality Assurance departments to ensure seamless operations\nAct as the primary technical point of contact for customers, vendors, and program partners across the full lifecycle (from proposal through end of mission data reviews)\nRepresent Firefly at conferences, reviews, and investor meetings\nLead Mission Readiness and Data Reviews to ensure the vehicle and personnel are ready to support missions for assigned program/product\nProvide technical mentorship to the team and facilitate the training pipeline for the Chief Engineering team\nBASIC QUALIFICATIONS\nRequired\nBachelor's degree in engineering or related discipline (e.g. computer science, mathematics, physics, chemistry)\n5+ years of hands-on experience with engineering problem solving in design, analysis, test, or operations of launch vehicle and/or spacecraft systems\nDemonstrated ability to apply engineering fundamentals, including a strong understanding of interdisciplinary system interactions\nAbility to travel approximately 10% of the time, with higher percentages in support of launch campaigns\nStrong interpersonal skills including the ability to communicate effectively, both verbally and written\nFlexibility regarding workflow and process\nExcellent organization skills; willingness to work with a team, share expertise, and follow instructions to accomplish established goals\nDesired\nMaster's or PhD degree in engineering or related discipline (e.g. computer science, mathematics, physics, chemistry)\n8+ years of professional, hands-on experience in aerospace engineering field (design, analysis, manufacturing, test, or operations at the vehicle-level)\nDemonstrated competency with engineering design configuration, risk management, and change management\nAbility to anticipate the impacts of vehicle-level changes to launch vehicle and/or spacecraft systems\nExperience serving as the primary technical authority over a full launch service lifecycle, from kickoff to mission completion\nOn-console test experience or support of launch vehicle and/or spacecraft system operations\nExperience with real-time troubleshooting and anomaly resolution in high-stakes environments\nComprehensive understanding of aerospace manufacturing processes, materials, and specifications\nKnowledge of regulatory requirements and industry standards such as Range Safety, AS9100, and SMC Standards\nExperience with Atlassian products (Confluence, Jira, Bitbucket), Teamcenter, Epsilon3, and/or Odoo\nTS/SCI security clearance or ability to obtain one\nFirefly offers outstanding benefits for our employees, including generous health, dental and vision plans with low plan deductibles, parental leave, relocation benefits, educational reimbursement, short term disability, and flexible PTO options.\nTo conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.\nFirefly Aerospace, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Firefly is governed based on merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.","description_format":"text","description_chars":7428,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":8,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":true,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Parental leave"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":true,"industries":["Launch Services","Space & Aerospace"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-21T08:14:48Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":1,"expected_fill_days":28,"reasons":["conf:0","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-10-21T20:50:38Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/firefly-aerospace-chief-engineer-launch-vehicles","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/firefly-aerospace-chief-engineer-launch-vehicles.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-21T20:50:38Z","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":29687,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-22T00:00:00Z"}},"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":63753},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=63753"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Ffirefly-aerospace-chief-engineer-launch-vehicles"},{"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%2Ffirefly-aerospace-chief-engineer-launch-vehicles"},{"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%2Ffirefly-aerospace-chief-engineer-launch-vehicles"},{"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/firefly-aerospace-chief-engineer-launch-vehicles\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Ffirefly-aerospace-chief-engineer-launch-vehicles"}]}