Chief Engineer - Spacecraft

Join a team where your impact reaches beyond the stars! At Terran Orbital, you're not just part of the system - you're a vital force propelling our mission forward. As trailblazers in satellite manufacturing and aerospace innovation, we shatter boundaries daily to deliver groundbreaking solutions that power our nation's defense and commercial missions. We are a unique, fast growing, and trusted team dedicated to swiftly and efficiently designing, building, launching, and operating state of the art satellites for advanced mission constellations. If you're driven by purpose, inspired by challenges, and ready to leave your mark on the universe, you'll find a home and endless opportunities for growth here. Together, let's redefine what is possible in orbit and beyond!

Summary

Terran Orbital is seeking an experienced Chief Engineer - Spacecraft to join our growing team as a key leadership team member. Reporting to the VP, Space & Mission Systems, the Chief Engineer - Spacecraft will be a key member of the engineering leadership team that works closely with functional engineering teams and program managers as a technical authority to ensure product integrity that meets customers' needs with technical excellence. The Chief Engineer will also support the development of solutions, provide input to technical cost proposals, drive affordability, and ensure the technical integrity of delivered products with rigor through design, testing, and technical issue resolution. This role will serve as a technical authority for the organization and provide technical leadership for the development roadmaps, engineering standards, process, and tool development, incorporating best practices and lessons learned across the portfolio for space products.

Key Duties and Responsibilities

• A hands-on leader, providing technical expertise and guidance across space system products.
• Ensure technical integrity and rigor of space systems designs, analysis, testing, and investigations.
• Support program key driving and risk areas.
• Lead and advise independent Non-Advocate Reviews for projects and programs to ensure business, customer, and supplier success.
• Provide leadership for the Engineering and Failure Review Boards.
• Provide leadership, mentoring, and guidance to the engineering teams.
• Liaison with Components and Modules Group.
• Establish best practices, frameworks, guidelines, standards, processes, and tools.
• Participate and lead the technical discussions with customers and suppliers to ensure mission success.
• Develop and maintain client network and relationships with senior-level customer counterparts.
• Guide architecture trades to find balanced solutions for technical, schedule, and cost.
• Support the sales and business development teams in the development of technology strategy by adding technical excellence to proposals and presentations.
• Maintain working knowledge of industry engineering practices, tools, and trends.
• Identify and engage meaningful technical inputs from other enterprise contributors and external experts, as needed, to provide optimal focus and skills for challenging and specialty technical topics.

Requirements

Additional Differentiators

Your actual level and base salary will be determined case-by-case and may vary based on the job-related qualification, knowledge, skills, education, and experience. In addition to base salary, we offer 100% covered medical, dental, and vision coverage, a 401(k) match, Flexible Time Off (FTO), covered life insurance, maternity and paternity leave, tuition reimbursement, employee referrals, and lots of swag!

Salary Range

$200,000-$250,000 USD

Benefits

About Terran Orbital

Terran Orbital is a leading manufacturer of satellite products primarily serving the aerospace and defense industries. Terran Orbital provides end-to-end satellite solutions by combining satellite design, production, launch planning, mission operations, and on-orbit support to meet the needs of the most demanding military, civil, and commercial customers. Learn more at www.terranorbital.com

Physical Demands

An employee must meet the physical demands described to perform the essential functions of this job successfully. In performing the duties of this job, the employee is routinely required to sit or stand for long durations of time, in addition to bending, reaching, and walking. This would require the ability to lift or move objects up to 10 pounds and occasionally lift or move objects up to 25 pounds. This position is generally sedentary, with substantial computer usage.

Work Environment

The job operates in a professional office environment but in a manufacturing company. This job routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, and scanners.

Disclaimers

To comply with U.S. Government space technology export regulations, the applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. In addition, please note that this position may require a current United States National Security clearance or eligibility for such a clearance.

Terran Orbital is an Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action Employer. We consider applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, national origin, ancestry, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or membership in any other group protected by federal, state, or local law.

If you need assistance or accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at hr@terranorbital.com.

Terran Orbital does not accept unsolicited resumes from recruiters, employment agencies, or staffing firms. To conduct business with Terran Orbital, a Master Services Agreement (MSA) must be executed and confirmed prior to submitting any information relating to a potential candidate. Without a signed MSA, Terran Orbital shall not be responsible to any individual or entity for any payment relating to any form of fee or compensation.

And, in the event that a resume or candidate is submitted by a recruiter, an employment agency, or a staffing firm without a fully executed MSA, Terran Orbital has the unrestricted right to pursue and hire any of those candidate(s) without any legal or financial responsibility to the recruiter, agency, and / or firm.