Mission Design Engineer

The return lane isn’t going to build itself. Come build it with us.

Outpost is an orbital logistics company rewriting the rules of global logistics by building reusable Earth-return vehicles that unlock in-space manufacturing, on-orbit warehousing, and 60-minute global delivery through space.

Our Carry All vehicle family returns payloads ranging from 200 kilograms to 10 metric tons, lands within 10 meters of its target, and can then be refurbished and launched again. One vehicle, many missions: responsive logistics and precision delivery for national security; commercial cargo moved with real cadence; R&D payloads flown, tested, and refined across repeatable cycles; and critical aid delivered where roads and runways can’t reach.

The demand is already here, validated through defense and civil agreements and supported by a growing pipeline of government and commercial customers. We have the customers, the team, and a clear technical path ahead of us. We’re building the return lane. Come build it with us.

The Team

The Mission Engineering team defines how each Outpost mission flies, from launch integration and on-orbit operations through deorbit, reentry, descent, and recovery. This role establishes the mission design and flight safety discipline within the team. The Senior Mission Design Engineer works directly with GNC, aerothermal, structures, avionics, and operations engineers, and represents Outpost to the FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST).

Responsibilities

• Own the flight safety analysis for Outpost reentry missions in accordance with 14 CFR Part 450, including trajectory analysis (§450.117), malfunction turn and failure-mode trajectory analysis (§450.119), debris analysis (§450.121), flight hazard area analysis (§450.133), and debris risk analysis (§450.135).
• Demonstrate compliance with Part 450 public safety criteria for collective and individual expected casualty, aircraft hazard, and conditional expected casualty, and define the vehicle reliability and failure probability inputs those analyses require.
• Develop and maintain 3-DOF and 6-DOF reentry trajectory simulations covering deorbit, atmospheric entry, descent, and terminal recovery.
• Design and execute Monte Carlo dispersion analyses across vehicle, atmospheric, navigation, and operational uncertainties, and quantify landing footprints and impact probability distributions.
• Model nominal and off-nominal vehicle breakup, fragment generation, demise, and survivable debris propagation to ground and sea impact.
• Define deorbit targeting, entry corridors, recovery zones, and flight hazard areas, and support coordination of NOTAMs, NOTMARs, and range airspace requests.
• Author the flight safety analysis sections of FAA license applications, Means of Compliance, and pre-application consultation material, and lead technical discussions with the FAA-AST.
• Establish flight safety limits, mission rules, and go/no-go criteria, and serve as the flight safety lead during mission rehearsals and live operations.
• Collaborate with GNC, aerothermal, structures, and reliability engineers to integrate vehicle models, failure modes, and hazard analyses (FHA, FMEA) into the flight safety case.
• Perform mission-specific trajectory and feasibility analyses in support of customer proposals, launch provider integration, and new business pursuits.
• Build and automate the analysis toolchain, and establish verification, validation, and configuration control processes for flight safety software and data products.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, physics, or a related field.
• 5+ years of experience in trajectory analysis, GNC, mission design, or flight safety for launch vehicles, reentry vehicles, or spacecraft;…