Vast
Director, Mission Engineering & Management
$189K–$268K
Long Beach, California, United States · Director · Full-time · Posted Jun 4, 2026
- Experience
- 8+ years of aerospace or defense engineering experience; 3+ years of program management, mission engineering, or systems engineering leadership experience.
- Education
- Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, or a related technical discipline.
About the job
Owns program and mission execution for a constellation-ready spacecraft bus product line, including a 10-satellite demonstration mission and customer, engineering, and launch coordination.
What you'll do
- Manage the integrated schedule, critical path, system requirements and budgets, risks, and status reporting.
- Lead customer and payload coordination, satellite manifest planning, launch contract and provider relationships, and launch campaign execution.
- Partner with engineering and business development to ensure mission designs and proposals meet requirements and are executable.
What they ask for
- Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, or a related technical discipline.
- 8+ years of engineering experience in aerospace or defense.
- 3+ years of program management, mission engineering, or systems engineering leadership experience.
- Experience running satellite or complex hardware delivery programs, including schedule, cost, and customer management; strong systems engineering background and multi-unit build experience.
Nice to have
- Able to obtain a security clearance.
- Launch campaign experience; payload accommodation and ICD negotiation, launch site facility operations, or spectrum licensing and regulatory coordination experience.
Pay
$188,600 — $267,720 USD (base salary)
Tools
digital twin toolchain, IMS, ICD, TVAC
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative