Mission Integration Engineer, Mission and Ground Systems (Starshield)
Hawthorne · 1+ years experience · Remote · Posted Oct 13, 2026
At a glance
- Experience
- 1+ years experience
- Workplace
- Remote
- Location
- Hawthorne
About the role
- Starshield leverages SpaceX’s Starlink technology and launch capability to support national security efforts with an initial focus on earth observation, communications, and hosted payloads.
- As a member of the Mission Management team, you will help tackle new technical problems from initial requirements verification through rapid prototyping, integrated test, and operational deployment.
Responsibilities
- Serve as the customer interface at meetings, tests, and reviews to develop operations plans, design missions, and participate in real world operations.
- Ensure contract deliverables are completed on-time and distill customer requirements into actionable development objectives.
- Work with internal and external stakeholders to drive development.
- Collaborate with subsystem representatives across team boundaries to consider all necessary trades and ensure end-to-end mission success.
- Support all phases of the program from development, initial proposal, through successful test, flight, and on-orbit commissioning.
- Educate the customer on designs and methodologies.
- Own ground segment architecture design, including compute infrastructure, network architecture, and software systems.
- Support in-person site surveys and selection for ground stations and datacenters.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in an engineering or science discipline.
- 1+ years of software engineering or electrical engineering, working hands-on with hardware or software technical projects.
- Successfully obtaining and maintaining a Top Secret Security Clearance as a condition of employment.
- Must be available to work extended hours and/or weekends as needed to support critical milestones or operations shifts.
- Willingness to travel to other SpaceX offices, customer locations, and remote ground sites as needed.
- Ability to pass Air Force background checks for Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg.
Preferred qualifications
- Familiarity with USG intelligence processes and systems.
- Experience integrating with large language models and traditional machine learning techniques.
- Experience coordinating hardware or infrastructure deployments, including in classified or government-controlled environments.
- Familiarity with networking fundamentals (e.g. IP networking, switching/routing concepts, etc).
- Demonstrated ability to work under pressure and deliver reliable and expeditious results across multiple parallel priorities.
- Highly detail oriented, hardworking, and professional with excellent written and verbal technical communication skills.
- Spacecraft mission design, development, integration, and/or test experience.
- Strong penchant for innovation in process improvement and system design.
Benefits
- Long-term incentives in the form of company stock or long-term cash awards
- Potential discretionary bonuses
- Ability to purchase additional stock at a discount through an Employee Stock Purchase Plan
- Comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage
- 401(k) retirement plan
- Short and long-term disability insurance
- Life insurance
- Paid parental leave
- 3 weeks of paid vacation
- 10 or more paid holidays per year
Workplace
- Must be willing to travel to other SpaceX offices, customer locations, and remote ground sites.
