Technical Staff - Space Systems Engineering, Integration, and Flight Test Operations

The Advanced Capabilities and Technologies Group (Group 91) researches, develops, and evaluates technologies for next-generation space systems. Current areas of interest include novel orbital constellations, deployable apertures, optical and RF imaging arrays, wide-field image acquisition and processing, feature modeling and recognition, communications networks, data visualization, and decision support. The group’s programs leverage resources from across Lincoln Lab to address critical needs for DARPA, the Air Force, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and others.

Our goal is to provide new capabilities, develop their of concepts of operation, and ensure that they are resilient to disruptive technological advances.

The Advanced Capabilities and Technologies Group within MIT Lincoln Laboratory's Space Systems and Technology Division develops and demonstrates advanced space capabilities for emerging national security missions. Our work spans novel mission architectures from very low Earth orbit to cislunar space, including dynamic space operations, tactically responsive space missions, autonomous maneuvering, distributed spacecraft coordination, distributed sensing, and advanced passive and active sensing modalities.

We combine mission analysis, systems engineering, modeling and simulation, and rapid prototyping to evaluate and demonstrate transformative space capabilities. We seek exceptionally motivated and highly self-directed engineers who thrive on technically complex, multidisciplinary problems and are excited to support first-of-a-kind space capabilities from concept formulation through flight experimentation. Team members are expected to operate with substantial technical autonomy, often supporting multiple concurrent programs, and routinely lead efforts spanning mission concept development, requirements engineering, integration and test, vendor interface, and flight test operations.

Group 91 is seeking a Technical Staff member to support systems engineering, integration, and flight test operations across a portfolio of space mission programs. The successful candidate will contribute across the full systems engineering lifecycle — from concept of operations (CONOPS) development and trade space analysis through requirements definition, verification and validation, payload integration, and flight test execution. This position offers the opportunity to work across multiple concurrent efforts, serving as a technical interface with launch vehicle providers and mission partners, managing requirements traceability and interface control documentation, supporting risk management activities, and planning and executing flight test operations in support of novel space capability demonstrations.

Systems Engineering and Mission Analysis

• Develop concept of operations (CONOPS) products and mission-level vision artifacts, including operational view (OV-1) diagrams, to communicate mission architecture and objectives to stakeholders.
• Develop, flow-down, and manage system-level requirements to subsystems and payload elements, ensuring traceability from mission objectives to implementation.
• Generate and maintain requirements traceability matrices (RTMs) to support requirements management and verification planning.
• Develop verification and validation (V&V) plans, procedures, and matrices, and support execution of V&V activities across analysis, test, and demonstration.
• Support system-level trade studies and trade space analyses to inform architecture decisions and design trades.
• Perform multi-disciplinary design and analysis across systems, including integration…