Lead Mission Assurance Engineer

The role

The Lead Mission Assurance Engineer will lead a team of approximately 6 engineers and own the end-to-end strategy for spacecraft safety and reliability. This person will drive vehicle safety architecture and work with design, test, and operations teams.

What you will do

• Own end-to-end vehicle safety architecture to meet safety and reliability requirements.
• Assess pre-flight risks and potential mitigations with design, analysis, and operations teams.
• Perform and review FMECA, FTA, PRA, and RAM analyses.
• Define and validate spacecraft fault management and FDIR architecture.
• Work with avionics, software, and operations teams to implement fault management strategies.
• Support on-console operations and drive in-flight anomaly resolution.
• Lead and mentor a team of safety, reliability, and fault management engineers.
• Report to program leadership on RAMS status, residual risk, and flight readiness.
• Drive corrective actions from anomalies, test failures, and operational events back into design improvements.

Required qualifications

• Master’s degree in an engineering or science discipline.
• 8+ years of experience in RAMS, mission assurance, or systems safety on complex hardware systems.
• Experience leading teams or projects.
• Proficiency with reliability tools (e.g., FMECA, FTA, reliability block diagrams).
• Deep understanding of fault tolerance, redundancy management, and failure detection/isolation/recovery.
• Technical knowledge of spacecraft systems and operations (e.g., communications, orbital mechanics, avionics, propulsion, thermal control, life support systems).
• Strong written and verbal communication of technical information.
• Able to effectively manage projects and tasks while meeting aggressive deadlines.
• Thrives under pressure and is resilient in the face of technical challenges.
• Excellent organizational and interpersonal skills.

Nice to have

• Experience developing and validating FDIR logic, watchdog strategies, and fault response sequences.
• Previous experience in a customer-facing role working through design requirements, test acceptance, and verification (especially with a government customer such as ESA/NASA).
• Ability and willingness to put in extra time to mentor other engineers while also being a significant individual contributor.
• Passion for advancing the commercial space industry and human spaceflight.

Benefits

• Relocation assistance is provided for those willing to relocate including visa sponsorship where applicable.

Before you apply

• All offers are contingent upon the successful completion of a background check.
• Visa sponsorship where applicable.

About the company

The Exploration Company is building spacecraft for humanity.