Spacecraft System Safety & Mission Assurance Engineer

A New Paradigm For Space Operations.

Space Kinetic is a dual use space technology startup building a completely new architecture for space operations – one that brings the advantages of proliferated drone technology (low-cost, operationally flexible, attainable, distributed) to space missions while reducing the ecosystem's reliance on consumable fuel. In a world where many companies are focused on incrementally improving the status quo, we are focused on creating something entirely different – an architecture underpinned by new first principles to meet the opportunities and challenges of the third space age head‑on.

Our goal is to move away from one-to-one space architectures – where each satellite in a constellation has one (or a small # of) primary payloads attached to the bus -- and unlock a ‘one-to-many’ system, where each satellite has a large number of payloads which can be deployed from their host spacecraft at high velocities without firing a thruster.

This is not a role for someone looking for a traditional 40-hour work week. Space Kinetic is building ambitious, first-of-its-kind technology, and that requires urgency, ownership, and a high level of commitment to changing the foundational assumptions for everything we do in space.

We are seeking a Spacecraft System Safety & Mission Assurance Engineer to ensure our space vehicles can safely and reliably accomplish their missions. This role will identify mission risks, evaluate off-nominal conditions, and influence spacecraft architecture, verification planning, and fault‑protection strategies for government space programs.

• Perform hazard analyses, fault tree analyses, FMEAs, and other safety assessments.
• Identify hazard controls, residual risks, and single‑point, common‑cause, and cascading failures.
• Develop fault detection, isolation, containment, recovery, and safing requirements.
• Evaluate spacecraft architecture, autonomy, modes, command paths, and off‑nominal behavior.
• Translate safety objectives into verifiable system and subsystem requirements.
• Verify hazard controls through analysis, testing, simulation, and fault injection.
• Support anomaly investigations, corrective actions, design reviews, readiness reviews, and customer safety reviews.
• Maintain traceability across hazards, controls, requirements, procedures, and verification evidence.

• Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace, Systems, Electrical, Mechanical, or Computer Engineering or a related field.
• 3–7 years of experience with spacecraft, launch vehicles, autonomous systems, or other safety‑critical systems.
• Experience in system safety, reliability, fault management, mission assurance, or spacecraft systems engineering.
• Knowledge of spacecraft subsystem interactions and end‑to‑end vehicle operations.
• Experience with fault protection, hazard assessments, fault tree analyses, FMEAs, or similar methods.
• Experience developing and verifying technical requirements across multiple engineering disciplines.
• Strong technical writing, communication, and risk‑informed engineering judgment.

• Experience with range safety and AFSPCMAN 91-710.
• Knowledge of COTS space‑rating assessments or low Earth orbit radiation risks.
• Experience with spacecraft fault management, autonomous safing, or mission‑recovery architectures.
• Experience with fault injection, hardware‑in‑the‑loop testing, Monte Carlo analysis, or mission simulations.
• Experience supporting NASA, the Department of Defense, the Intelligence Community, or other government space programs.
• Experience with MBSE and requirements tools such as Cameo, Magic Draw, SysML, DOORS, or Jama.
• Active or previously held U.S. government security clearance.

To conform to U.S.…