Space System Engineer - Level 4

LV8D Solutions supports national security space and intelligence customers delivering next-generation sensing and exploitation capabilities. The Space System Engineer 4
* provides technical engineering and acquisition support for the development, integration, and lifecycle management of space systems, ensuring mission success from system initialization through on-orbit operations.

LV8D Solutions is seeking a Space System Engineer.

This role coordinates cross-functional teams, development contractors, mission analysis, and acquisition organizations to evaluate requirements, support calibration and validation activities, and ensure comprehensive technical reviews. The Space System Engineer assesses system design maturity, verifies requirements compliance, reviews acquisition milestone documentation for accuracy and completeness, and identifies cost, schedule, and technical risks while recommending effective mitigation strategies. Supports design reviews, program management reviews, and technical meetings by delivering informed engineering recommendations that advance program objectives and mission readiness.

Interested candidates need to thrive in an innovative, fast-paced environment; are highly motivated and not afraid to take on uncharted territory; possess strong communication, collaboration, leadership, and organizational skills; and be able to prioritize their time to be effective in a dynamic environment while being strategically proactive.

• Support initialization and characterization activities across the enterprise and with the development contractors
• Coordinate proposed requirements changes across all applicable organizations and with mission analysis and acquisition teams to ensure completeness of review across the acquisition.
• Support initialization and on-orbit calibration and validation activities
• Attend Segment level design reviews and program management reviews to assess design maturity, requirements compliance and to provide informed technical recommendations to the customer
• Review acquisition milestone design documentation for adequacy, accuracy and completeness, and identify cost, schedule and technical risks/opportunities, and provide mitigation strategies through formal and informal comments
• Support technical and programmatic reviews and meetings, as required.

• Bachelor's degree in STEM (science, technical, engineering, math) or related discipline with 5-9 years of relevant experience
• Understanding of Department of War/Intelligence Community (DOW/IC) satellite systems and architecture
• Excellent interpersonal, leadership, team building, and problem-solving skills with a demonstrated ability to be independent and effective in a government/contractor team environment
• Experience in DOW/IC acquisition and program management processes
• Experience supporting the design, integration, testing, and operation of space payload systems for government, commercial, or defense space programs.
• Familiarity with spacecraft payload architectures including Electro Optical/Infrared (EO/IR) sensors, imaging payloads, or scientific instrumentation.
• Knowledge of systems engineering processes throughout the payload lifecycle including requirements development, verification, validation, and mission integration.
• Experience conducting payload performance analysis, link budgets, or mission data analysis.
• Experience working within multi-disciplinary engineering teams supporting spacecraft bus, mission operations, and ground segment integration.
• Proficiency with engineering and analysis tools such as MATLAB, Python, STK, LabVIEW, DOORS, Cameo, or equivalent modeling and simulation environments.
• Familiarity with developing and implementing automated strategies to include collection strategies and orchestration.
• Understanding of space environment impacts including radiation effects, thermal constraints, orbital dynamics, and reliability considerations.
• Ability to support technical reviews including SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, and mission readiness reviews.
• Experience developing technical documentation, interface control documents (ICDs), verification plans, and test procedures.
• Strong…