Firefly Aerospace
Chief Engineer, Spacecraft
Cedar Park, TX · Full-time · Posted Oct 26, 2026
- Experience
- 8+ years required; 10+ years of professional, hands-on aerospace engineering experience is desired.
- Education
- Bachelor's degree in engineering or a related discipline; Master's or PhD desired.
- 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 authorizations from the U.S. Department of State under U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including ITAR.
About the job
Leads vehicle-level technical architecture, engineering decisions, risk management, and customer-facing coordination for spacecraft missions throughout their lifecycle.
What you'll do
- Define vehicle architecture and lead system-level trades, design reviews, and interdisciplinary optimization.
- Manage vehicle technical risks and budgets, and support integrated mission operations and anomaly resolution.
- Serve as the primary technical contact for customers and partners; coordinate teams and mentor engineering staff.
What they ask for
- Bachelor's degree in engineering or a related discipline (e.g. computer science, mathematics, physics).
- 8+ years of hands-on engineering problem-solving experience in design, analysis, test, or operations of launch vehicle and/or spacecraft systems.
- Ability to apply engineering fundamentals, including a strong understanding of orbital mechanics.
- Ability to travel approximately 10% of the time, with higher percentages in support of environmental test and launch.
Nice to have
- Master's or PhD degree in engineering or a related discipline.
- Relevant aerospace engineering experience, vehicle-level technical authority, on-console operations, risk/change management, or listed tools and standards.
Tools
Atlassian products (Confluence, Jira, Bitbucket), Teamcenter, Epsilon3, Odoo, AS9100, SMC Standards, ISO 14644-1:2015(E) Class 8
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative