Spacecraft System Architect Lead

The role

You will turn customer input and business goals into conceptual system architecture, requirements, and product breakdowns. You will lead the product through detailed design, build, test, flight, and on-orbit operations.

What you will do

• Translate customer and business objectives into system concepts, ConOps, functional capabilities and system requirements.
• Develop product breakdown and perform first-order analysis to size the system and estimate mass, power, cost and performance.
• Make early cross-disciplinary trades across propulsion, GNC, power, thermal, structures, avionics, software, and ground.
• Establish design margins, reliability targets and an incremental development path.
• Define interfaces to Nova and to customer systems.
• Select and manage external partners for major subsystems.
• Support the full product lifecycle from detailed design to on-orbit operations.
• Be the technical face of the product with customers and partners.
• Act as program lead for schedule, budget and risk through first flight.
• Help grow the engineering team as the product matures.

Required qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in aerospace, mechanical, electrical engineering, physics or a related field.
• 10+ years of spacecraft or launch vehicle engineering experience.
• At least one spacecraft carried from concept through on-orbit operations.
• Experience as a chief engineer, system architect, vehicle lead or equivalent accountable technical role on a spacecraft or stage.
• Exceptional command of fundamentals in one or more of structures, propulsion, thermal, power, GNC, avionics or software.
• Ability to apply first-order analysis across all disciplines.
• Demonstrated ability to make rapid, well-reasoned architectural decisions with incomplete information.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to lead and to follow.

Nice to have

• Flight heritage on a long-duration spacecraft (GEO, MEO, cislunar or multi-year LEO).
• Experience with atmospheric reentry, aerobraking or other atmospheric flight phases of a space vehicle.
• Exposure to high-delta-v maneuvering, rendezvous and proximity operations, or refueling.
• Shipped flight hardware on a startup timeline.
• Production-rate or constellation bus experience.
• Experience with national-security space customers and the demonstration-to-program path.
• Experience with storable or green chemical propulsion, electric propulsion, or refueling interfaces.
• Experience leading or managing engineering teams.
• Master's degree or PhD in aerospace engineering or a related field.

Benefits

• Equity in the form of stock options
• Subsidized medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Company-paid life and disability insurance
• 401(k) plan with employer match
• 4 weeks’ Paid Time Off
• 11 days of holidays including an end-of-year closure
• Paid Family/Parental Leave
• On-site gym or monthly wellness stipend (depending on location)
• Dog friendly offices

Before you apply

• Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., or protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3).
• Employment is contingent upon satisfactory completion of reference and background checks.
• Must be able to prove identity and authorization to work in the U.S.
• Employment may be conditioned on legal authorization to work with or have access to export control materials.
• Stoke Space uses E-Verify to confirm identity and employment eligibility.

About the company

Stoke is building Nova, a fully and rapidly reusable launch vehicle designed for daily flight. The company aims to create a scalable space industry by reducing cost and increasing availability.