Senior Space Flight and Navigation Engineer

Engineering Full Time

Senior Space Flight and Navigation Engineer

About Intuitive Machines:

Intuitive Machines is an innovative and cutting-edge space company making cislunar space accessible to both public and private customers. Our mission is to further science and exploration, communications, and economic progress from the Earth to the Moon and beyond. With multiple NASA lunar missions in development and additional private missions on our manifest, we pride ourselves in supporting NASA, our customers, and the nation in paving the way to return humans to the surface of the Moon.

Our world‑class team includes experts in all aspects of spacecraft subsystems design, development, and test, on‑orbit operations, and safety.

KinetX Aerospace, a subsidiary of Intuitive Machines, is a trusted engineering services and product company specializing in space navigation, flight dynamics, mission operations, communications, and systems engineering. As the first private company qualified by NASA for deep‑space navigation, KinetX has supported some of the world’s most complex planetary missions, including MESSENGER, New Horizons, OSIRIS‑REx, Lucy, and LunaH‑Map. With a proven record spanning Earth‑orbiting, suborbital, commercial, international, and deep‑space missions, KinetX provides end‑to‑end expertise from early mission design through flight operations.

Its core capabilities include navigation and mission systems development, optical navigation, orbit determination, maneuver design, trajectory optimization, and constellation design and maintenance. Combined with Intuitive Machines’ spacecraft, network, and mission‑operations capabilities, KinetX helps build, connect, and operate resilient space infrastructure for sustained exploration, advanced deep‑space constellations, and communications networks.

About the Position:

KinetX Aerospace is seeking a Senior Orbit Determination & Maneuver Engineer to support the modernization and sustainment of the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) Orbit Analysis System (OAS). This position will serve as a technical leader for flight dynamics activities supporting next‑generation orbit determination, maneuver planning, ephemeris generation, mission operations, and software modernization efforts for a mission‑critical U.S. Space Force program that provides secure, worldwide voice, data, and mission communications for mobile warfighters operating on land, at sea, in the air, and in remote environments.

The role supports both near‑term OAS upgrades and the long‑term development of an extensible orbit maintenance and maneuver planning architecture.

The successful candidate will apply deep expertise in orbital mechanics, estimation theory, station‑keeping operations, and spacecraft mission planning while partnering with software engineers, systems engineers, satellite operators, and government customers to develop and deploy advanced flight dynamics capabilities.

Responsibilities:

Technical Leadership

• Serve as the flight dynamics subject matter expert for orbit determination, maneuver planning, and satellite operations activities.
• Lead technical assessments, trade studies, and design reviews supporting OAS modernization efforts.
• Provide leadership and expertise with the development of verification testing through the development, OAS integration, and ground segment integration activities.
• Provide technical oversight and mentoring for junior flight dynamics engineers and analysts.
• Serve as lead liaison with mission operations, customers, and engineering teams. Support customer briefings, technical interchange meetings, design reviews, and operational readiness assessments.
• Recommend innovative approaches for improving OD methods and…