Firefly Aerospace
Chief Engineer, Launch Vehicles
Cedar Park, TX · Full-time · Posted Oct 20, 2026
- Experience
- 5+ years required; 8+ years preferred.
- Education
- Bachelor's degree in engineering or related discipline; Master's or PhD preferred.
- Visa sponsorship
- Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain required U.S. Department of State authorizations under ITAR.
About the job
Leads vehicle-level engineering for a launch vehicle program, overseeing architecture, technical decisions, risk, interdisciplinary optimization, and customer-facing support throughout the mission lifecycle.
What you'll do
- Define vehicle architecture and lead system-level trades, design reviews, and optimization of mass, performance, power, and data budgets.
- Own program technical risks; review designs and test materials, mitigate issues, and support integrated tests and launch operations.
- Lead cross-functional teams and serve as the technical contact for customers, vendors, and program partners from proposal through mission completion.
What they ask for
- Bachelor's degree in engineering or a related discipline.
- 5+ years of hands-on engineering problem-solving experience in design, analysis, test, or operations of launch vehicle and/or spacecraft systems.
- Ability to travel approximately 10% of the time, with higher percentages during launch campaigns.
- Strong interpersonal and written and verbal communication skills.
Nice to have
- Master's or PhD in engineering or a related discipline; 8+ years of hands-on aerospace engineering experience.
- Experience with vehicle-level technical authority, on-console operations, risk and change management, aerospace standards, or listed engineering tools.
Tools
Confluence, Jira, Bitbucket, Teamcenter, Epsilon3, Odoo, AS9100, SMC Standards
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