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Mission Design and Flight Dynamics Manager

Impulse· Autonomous Systems
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Boulder County$200k - $250kFull-timePosted 3w ago

About the role

Leader sought to build and direct the Mission Design and Flight Dynamics team, turning customer objectives into executable missions from concept through flight operations and disposal. Hands-on technical leadership across trajectory design, navigation, and mission analysis, collaborating with Business Development, Space Operations, GNC, and Propulsion.

Responsibilities

  • Build, lead, and mentor a team of navigation, flight dynamics, and mission design engineers, owning hiring, career development, technical standards, and the team's roadmap across programs and pursuits.
  • Serve as the technical authority for mission design, trajectory, orbit determination, and maneuver decisions from concept through end of mission.
  • Lead mission solutioning for inbound customers and RFP responses, translating customer objectives into CONOPS and demonstrating how Impulse vehicles close the mission, including fit checks against both as-built and concept-phase vehicles (mass, volume, CAD accommodation, propellant, power, and link budgets).
  • Partner with Business Development and customers to capture requirements, run rapid feasibility studies, and deliver compelling mission design content for proposals and customer meetings.
  • Maintain a current understanding of product line performance and capabilities, and feed mission needs back into vehicle roadmaps and concept-phase designs.
  • Direct trajectory design and optimization across regimes and propulsion types, leading trades that balance ΔV, time of flight, operational complexity, and navigation sensitivity.
  • Define navigation architectures and advance orbit determination and inertial navigation beyond LEO, including radiometric and optical navigation.
  • Own flight dynamics support to Space Operations, including planning, executing, and reconstructing nominal and novel maneuvers, orbit determination, conjunction assessment, and critical mission phases and contingencies.
  • Drive the team's toolchain and automation, building production-quality tools for propagation, targeting, orbit determination, maneuver reconstruction, and rapid mission analysis and visualization, with automated maneuver planning and execution that scales across a growing fleet.
  • Support licensing and regulatory work for missions, including debris mitigation and disposal analyses.

Qualifications

  • B.S. in Aerospace Engineering, Astrodynamics, Physics, Applied Mathematics, or related field.
  • 10+ years of demonstrated experience in spacecraft flight dynamics, astrodynamics, or mission design.
  • Demonstrated ability to communicate complex technical trades clearly to customers, executives, and non-specialists.
  • Demonstrated experience supporting spacecraft operations or mission-critical events.
  • Proficiency in Python and/or C++ for engineering tool development.
  • Demonstrated experience developing production-quality technical software.

Skills

Required:Leadership and team buildingTrajectory design and optimizationOrbit determination and navigationSoftware development for engineering tools

Benefits

  • long-term incentives in the form of stock options
  • medical, vision & dental coverage
  • access to a 401(k) retirement plan
Last updated Oct 22, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About Impulse

Accelerating our future beyond Earth

Accelerating our future beyond Earth

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