Systems Engineer

PAVE Space is building LYOBA, a heavy kick stage moving up to 4-tonne payloads from LEO to high-energy orbits in under 24 hours.

Every engineering team at PAVE Space is growing and the systems engineering function needs to match. Two vehicles are running in parallel, the architecture is hardening by the week, and the interface and verification work ahead outpaces the current team. We're adding engineers now, not next quarter.

As part of the SE team, you'll contribute across the full scope of systems engineering for both LYOBA and IBEX:

System architecture and the technical baseline for both vehicles

Requirements decomposition and traceability from mission needs down to subsystem specs

Interface management, both internal across subsystems and external with launchers and customer payloads

V&V strategy and qualification path

System-level risk register and risk retirement planning

Technical content for review gates

3-4 years in aerospace engineering with real systems engineering exposure (requirements, interfaces, verification) on a hardware programme that shipped or flew

Familiarity with high-dV or propulsion-driven spacecraft architectures: upper stages, kick stages, orbit transfer vehicles, or similar

You've decomposed system-level needs into subsystem requirements and traced them through verification, not just reviewed someone else's output

Working knowledge of qualification and acceptance testing standards (ECSS, GEVS, MIL-STD, or equivalent)

You've contributed to spacecraft architecture or mission design work, not only analysis in isolation

Clear technical communication: you can write a brief and defend it in front of engineers and leadership

English, fluently

Nice to have: experience through a full review cycle (SRR through QR or beyond), launcher or upper-stage background specifically, French.

You want to build the artefacts yourself, not manage people who do.

You're comfortable working across multiple subsystems in the same week rather than going deep on one for months.

You can hold the tension between what the requirement says and what the hardware actually does, and flag it early.

You'd rather join a team being formed than inherit a seat in a mature org.

The job is fully on-site in Villeneuve (VD). The systems engineering function is being formalised now, not handed to you finished. Processes are being written, tooling is being chosen, and both programmes are moving while that happens. This is early and demanding work. What makes that worth it: you'll do real SE across two full vehicles at once, touching architecture, interfaces, and qualification in a single week rather than spending years on one subsystem at a large prime.

The team is small enough that your work shows up directly in what gets built and what passes review.