Mission Integration Engineer

Job description

Quindar is seeking a Mission Integration Engineer to help define, architect, and deliver integrated satellite ground systems for commercial and government customers. The Mission Integration team owns the technical path from opportunity shaping through verified mission deployment. This includes solutions and sales engineering, technical proposal development, solution architecture, product strategy input, and formal systems engineering functions during execution. Mission Integration Engineers become deep subject matter experts on both Quindar’s platform and the customer’s mission, translating mission needs into executable technical solutions and ensuring those solutions are delivered, verified, and accepted. This is a highly cross-functional role. You will work closely with both customers and Quindar teams in sales, product, software engineering, forward-deployed engineering, and customer success. You will help shape contract scope, define mission architectures, identify product gaps, manage requirements and verification outcomes, and ensure Quindar’s software is aligned to the mission’s operational, technical, and programmatic needs. We are looking for candidates who can operate at both the big-picture and detailed levels: someone who can understand a customer opportunity deeply, reason through architecture and trade space, communicate clearly with technical and non-technical stakeholders, and drive structure in complex, first-of-kind missions. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES MISSION ARCHITECTURE & OPPORTUNITY SHAPING - Serve as a technical subject matter expert for customer opportunities, deeply understanding the customer’s mission, CONOPS, operational needs, interfaces, constraints, and success criteria. - Lead solution architecture for commercial and government opportunities. - Partner with sales and business development teams to shape deal strategy, technical scope, proposal approach, and customer-facing solution narratives. - Support technical proposal development, including RFI/RFP responses, compliance matrices, architecture descriptions, technical volumes, BOEs, demos, and customer design reviews. - Translate customer mission needs into clear technical solutions that align Quindar’s platform capabilities, product roadmap, engineering capacity, and delivery approach. - Identify product gaps, integration risks, and architectural tradeoffs early in the opportunity lifecycle and drive alignment across internal teams. - Support customer meetings, technical interchange meetings, site visits, conferences, and program reviews as needed. SYSTEMS ENGINEERING & MISSION INTEGRATION - Own the systems engineering process and outcomes for assigned missions, with the level of rigor tailored to the customer and program. - Lead or coordinate requirements development, requirements management, interface definition, architecture documentation, verification planning, and acceptance criteria. - Own the verification and validation process across mission threads, including commanding, telemetry, automation, mission data flows, operational workflows, and mission-specific analytics. - Coordinate V&V execution across product, software engineering, forward-deployed engineering, customer, and program stakeholders. - Develop and maintain mission-relevant systems engineering artifacts such as requirements documents, ICDs, CONOPS, verification matrices, test plans, acceptance plans, and architecture models. - Support more formal systems engineering approaches for government programs, including traceability, documentation discipline, MBSE, and structured technical reviews. - Ensure technical decisions are clearly documented, communicated, and aligned across customer, engineering, product, and delivery teams. PRODUCT STRATEGY & PLATFORM FEEDBACK - Advise product strategy and roadmap direction based on recurring customer needs, mission patterns, and technical gaps observed across opportunities and integrations. - Distinguish between one-off mission-specific needs and repeatable platform capabilities that should influence product direction. - Work with product and engineering teams to define feature requirements, technical priorities, and architectural considerations for mission-driven capabilities. - Maintain a strong understanding of Quindar’s platform, software architecture, deployment models, and technical constraints in order to represent the product accurately and credibly to customers. - Help ensure Quindar’s platform evolves in a way that supports a broad range of mission classes, customer environments, and operational models. CROSS-FUNCTIONAL TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP - Function as a Mission Architect alongside the Chief Engineer, Software Architect, and other technical leaders. - Bridge customer needs, sales strategy, product capabilities, software implementation, and delivery execution. - Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to customers, executives, engineers, operators, and program stakeholders. - Drive alignment across teams in ambiguous or fast-moving situations. - Help establish scalable practices, templates, and technical patterns for future opportunities and missions. QUALIFICATIONS REQUIRED EXPERIENCE - 5+ years of relevant experience in satellite ground systems, mission integration, systems engineering, technical sales, mission operations, software platform engineering, government aerospace programs, spacecraft systems, or a related field. - Experience working with complex technical systems that require coordination across software, hardware, operations, customer, and program stakeholders. - Demonstrated ability to understand a technical system deeply and translate customer or mission needs into executable architecture, requirements, scope, and delivery plans. - Experience supporting customer-facing technical work such as solution architecture, technical proposals, design reviews, requirements discussions, integration planning, or technical program execution. - Familiarity with satellite operations, TT&C concepts, ground system architectures, mission operations workflows, or spacecraft-to-ground interfaces. - Strong technical communication skills, including the ability to write clearly, present technical concepts, and create structured documentation. HIGHLY DESIRED EXPERIENCE - 8–12+ years of experience for senior or principal-level candidates. - Prior experience with government space programs, classified programs, or formal aerospace systems engineering processes. - Experience with technical proposal development, RFP/RFI responses, compliance matrices, solution narratives, or scope definition. - Experience with requirements management, V&V planning, acceptance testing, ICDs, CONOPS, MBSE, and technical review processes. - Familiarity with Cameo, SysML, Git-based engineering workflows, or similar systems engineering and documentation approaches. - Experience with cloud-based ground systems, modern software platforms, APIs, automation, and satellite operations software. - Ability to code or script when needed, especially for analysis, test automation, system configuration, prototyping, or workflow acceleration. - Comfort using modern AI tools to improve technical analysis, documentation, proposal development, systems engineering workflows, and engineering productivity. - Experience with containerized or cloud deployments, such as Docker, Kubernetes, AWS, or AWS GovCloud. EDUCATION - Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Systems Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Software Engineering, or a related technical field, or equivalent practical experience. CLEARANCE & EXPORT REQUIREMENTS - Active Top Secret clearance required on day one. - SCI eligibility or active TS/SCI is highly desired. - To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here https://www.pmddtc.state.gov/ddtc_public/ddtc_public?id=ddtc_kb_article_page&sys_id=24d528fddbfc930044f9ff621f961987. WHAT MAKES SOMEONE SUCCESSFUL IN THIS ROLE The strongest candidates will be able to quickly become experts in both Quindar’s platform and a customer’s mission. They will be comfortable moving between architecture, proposal strategy, customer conversations, requirements, verification, product gaps, and execution risk. They will know how to create structure where it does not yet exist, communicate tradeoffs clearly, and drive teams toward a shared technical outcome. This role is well suited for someone who wants to operate at the intersection of satellite missions, software, systems engineering, product strategy, and customer-facing technical leadership. WHY YOU’LL LOVE WORKING AT QUINDAR - You will work in a cutting-edge industry and have direct impact on the success of real space missions. - You will help shape how modern satellite ground systems are architected, sold, deployed, and verified. - You will work across the full mission lifecycle, from early opportunity shaping through technical acceptance. - You will have meaningful influence on product direction and technical strategy. - You will be part of a small team where your judgment, ownership, and technical leadership matter. - We take work-life balance seriously, require employees to take 15 days off, provide unlimited PTO, and follow most U.S. federal government holidays. - We provide quarterly health and wellness benefits because mental health is just as important as physical health. - We offer comprehensive health insurance for you and your family, with 100% coverage for employees. - We provide 4% 401(k) matching to help employees save for retirement. - Each year, we host a four-day company offsite. Previous locations include San Francisco, Nashville, Denver, Santa Fe, New Orleans, San Diego, Bozeman, and New York City. - Our culture and company are still evolving, and you will help shape the next version of both.