Senior Director of Spacecraft Structure & Mission Hardware
Muon Space· Engineering - Hardware
Hybrid (San Jose, CA)$223k - $259kfull-timePosted 2mo ago
About the role
Senior leadership role overseeing the Bus Structure and Missions team, responsible for spacecraft bus structures, GSE, testbeds, and mission-specific tailoring. Hybrid on-site in San Jose, CA three days per week; reports to Senior Director of Hardware Engineering.
Responsibilities
- Lead a team to architect, design, analyze, and qualify a catalog of bus platforms to meet a wide range of mission requirements.
- Collaborate with Product, Business Development, System Engineering, Software Engineering, Operations, and more to ensure buses meet the needs of our growing portfolio of customer missions.
- Collaborate with Mission Management and our customers to understand mission specific and instrument specific needs.
- Implement instances of our bus platforms for these missions. Ensure all mission milestones are met.
- Own Spacecraft level structural and thermal analysis & bus level testing strategies.
- Produce and maintain mission specific hardware-in-the-loop testbeds to enable integrated software and hardware testing on a flight-representative system.
- Support new mission proposals, contribute to cost models, and ensure mission feasibility pre-contract.
- Own design of mechanical and electrical ground support equipment (MGSE & EGSE) required for production of spacecraft platforms.
- Mentor and support multiple levels of team managers and enable scalable growth within the team.
Qualifications
- 15+ years of experience designing and/or managing the design of complex, high reliability systems that operate in harsh environments (spacecraft, autonomous vehicles, drones, etc).
- 8+ years of people management experience managing engineers and engineering managers.
- B.S., M.S., or Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related field.
- Excellent leadership, program management, communication, teamwork, and problem-solving skills.
- Proven experience managing complex engineering projects from concept to deployment, including budget and schedule management.
- Ability to rapidly change roles/responsibilities while working in a high-paced, rewarding work environment with new challenges each week.
- Strong technical background understanding the fundamentals of mechanical and electrical design & analysis.
- Excited to work in a fast-paced environment with new challenges each week.
Skills
Required:Leadership and people managementSystems engineering leadershipProgram managementMechanical design & analysisElectrical ground support equipment (MGSE & EGSE) design
Benefits
- equity grant
- comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, and vision insurance
- 401k retirement plan
- short & long term disability and life insurance
- three weeks paid vacation for new employees
- 12 paid holidays
- unlimited sick time
- paid parental leave
Last updated Sep 19, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.
About Muon Space
The Mission Foundry — designing, building, and operating high-performance satellite constellations for National Security, civil, and commercial customers.
Design, build, and operate mission-optimized satellite constellations with Muon Space.
Mission FoundryMission DesignSpacecraft PlatformsPayloads & Data ProductsOrbital AIConstellation ProductionManaged Orbital Services
More open roles at Muon Space
- Recruiting CoordinatoryesterdayHybrid (San Jose, CA) · G&A
- Principal Software Engineer, Mission DesignyesterdayHybrid (San Jose, CA) · Engineering - Software
- Senior Director, EO/IR Instrument EngineeringyesterdayHybrid (Mountain View, CA) · Engineering - EO/IR Instruments
- Spacecraft Test Engineering Intern (Summer 2027)1w agoSan Jose, CA · Production - AIT
- Senior Manager, Test Engineering1w agoSan Jose, CA · Production - AIT