Principal Systems Engineer

Job Summary

The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) is seeking an accomplished Principal System Engineer to provide technical leadership for the development of world-class scientific instruments supporting a broad range of spaceflight missions. These instruments span Earth science, planetary science, heliophysics, astrophysics, and emerging national and international space initiatives.

As a Systems Engineer, you will serve as the technical integrator for LASP instruments throughout formulation, development, integration, environmental testing, launch, and mission operations. Working closely with scientists, project managers, and multidisciplinary engineering team, you will ensure that scientific objectives remain aligned with engineering decisions throughout the instrument lifecycle.

This is an opportunity to influence every aspect of flight instruments while working alongside internationally recognized scientists, engineers, and mission partners. Successful candidates are team focused, thrive in technically ambiguous environments, make sound engineering decisions with incomplete information, and know how to balance scientific performance, technical risk, cost, and schedule to deliver exceptional science.

CU is an Equal Opportunity Employer and complies with all applicable federal, state, and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment. We are committed to creating a workplace where all individuals are treated with respect and dignity, and we encourage individuals from all backgrounds to apply, including protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.

LASP combines the agility of a university laboratory with the technical capability of a premier space mission organization. Engineers work directly alongside scientists, students, and mission operators, allowing technical decisions to move quickly while maintaining scientific excellence.

As part of the University of Colorado Boulder (CU), LASP began in 1948 and is a world-recognized space science research institute that implements the full life cycle of science missions from the definition of the science questions through the development of space flight hardware and the subsequent mission operations. We are the only research institute in the world to have sent science instruments to all eight planets, Pluto, and beyond the solar system.

LASP combines all aspects of space exploration through our expertise in science, engineering, mission operations, and scientific data analysis. As part of CU, LASP also works to educate and train the next generation of space scientists, engineers and mission operators by integrating undergraduate and graduate students into working teams. Our students take their unique experiences with them into government or industry or remain in academia to continue the cycle of exploration.

As a principal SE, you will become the technical conscience of an instrument, ensuring that engineering decisions made across disciplines remain aligned with the mission's scientific objectives. You will serve as a technical leader within the Systems Engineering organization by mentoring early-career engineers, shaping systems engineering practices for the instruments, and making instrument-level technical decisions related to the successful verification and validation of the instrument requirements to meet science objectives.

• Serve as a technical authority for the flight instrument throughout formulation, development, integration, launch, and commissioning.
• Lead multidisciplinary engineering teams spanning mechanical, electrical, optical, thermal, software, I&T, contamination control, reliability, and science.
• Foster a collaborative engineering culture emphasizing technical excellence and sound engineering judgment.
• Mentor junior systems engineers and contribute to the growth of the project's systems engineering organization.

• Define and evolve the instrument technical architecture.
• Own instrument requirements, interfaces, verification planning, and technical baseline.
• Guide instrument-level trade studies balancing science performance, technical risk, cost, and schedule.
• Participate in the development of the Systems Engineering Management Plan and Concept of Operations.
• Lead instrument technical reviews.

• Participate in the development of spacecraft-to-instrument interface definitions.
• Represent the instrument team in spacecraft technical interactions.
• Ensure successful accommodation of instrument resources including mass, power, thermal, pointing, data volume, EMC, and fault management.
• Guide instrument and spacecraft-interface verifications throughout integration and test.
• Other Duties Assigned.

• Lead development of instrument assembly, integration, environmental testing, calibration, and characterization.
• Coordinate specialty engineering activities including contamination control, reliability, radiation,…