Senior Mission Manager

The role

The Senior Mission Manager is responsible for end-to-end mission success for complex, crewed missions. This person serves as the primary customer interface and internal mission lead from contract award through on-orbit execution and mission closeout.

What you will do

• Personally responsible for end-to-end mission success
• Serve as primary point of contact for customers
• Own and negotiate ICDs defining interface requirements
• Lead integration of all tasks necessary to execute a mission
• Lead integration of pressurized payloads and cargo lifecycle
• Drive risk management, issue resolution, and cross-functional execution
• Lead integrated master schedule development tied to contractual milestones
• Coordinate with mission operations, engineering, production, and leadership teams
• Support Business Development with pre-sales engineering, customer meetings, and contract negotiations
• Represent Vast to key external stakeholders and customers

Required qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, science, or technical discipline
• 8+ years of experience in systems engineering, technical program management, or customer-facing mission execution roles
• Ability to travel up to 20% of the time
• Willingness to work overtime, or weekends to support critical mission milestones

Nice to have

• Direct experience with human spaceflight missions (ISS, free flyer, or commercial crew)
• Familiarity with NASA human spaceflight policies and procedures
• Working knowledge of crew vehicle systems
• Experience leading launch integration campaigns
• ICD negotiation with external stakeholders

Benefits

• company equity
• medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents
• up to 20+ days of vacation for exempt staff
• up to 10+ days of vacation for non-exempt staff with the ability to cash-out unused vacation annually
• paid parental leave
• short and long-term disability insurance
• life insurance
• access to a 401(k) retirement plan
• ClassPass credits
• personalized mental healthcare through Spring Health
• snacks, drip coffee & onsite barista, cold drinks, and dinner meals remaining free of charge
• lunch subsidized

About the company

Vast is developing next-generation space stations and space infrastructure. Headquartered in Long Beach, California, the company has more than 1,000 employees.