Space Kinetic develops a propellant-free electromechanical payload-deployment system and patented mechanism to eject diverse small payloads at high velocities from host satellites for space and missile defense applications.
<p><strong>A New Paradigm For Space Operations.</strong></p> <p><strong>Who We Are:</strong></p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p><strong>What You’ll Do:</strong></p> <p>We are seeking a <strong>Spacecraft System Safety & Mission Assurance Engineer</strong> to help ensure our space vehicles can safely and reliably accomplish their missions. You will identify mission risks, evaluate hazardous and off-nominal conditions, and develop effective fault-protection strategies across the full program lifecycle.</p> <p> </p> <p>The <strong>Spacecraft System Safety & Mission Assurance Engineer</strong> is responsible for partnering across engineering disciplines to influence spacecraft architecture, operational concepts, verification planning, and mission decision-making for government space programs</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Job Responsibilities:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Lead and support spacecraft system safety assessments, hazard analyses, fault tree analyses, failure modes and effects analyses, and other safety and risk analyses.</li> <li>Identify hazard causes, controls, verification methods, residual risks, single-point failures, common-cause failures, and cascading failures.</li> <li>Develop fault-protection concepts and requirements, including fault detection, isolation, containment, recovery, safing, and mission-recovery strategies.</li> <li>Evaluate spacecraft responses to off-nominal conditions and coordinate fault-management approaches across flight software, avionics, subsystem controllers, and mission operations.</li> <li>Translate safety and mission assurance objectives into clear, verifiable system and subsystem requirements.</li> <li>Evaluate spacecraft modes, autonomy logic, command paths, operational constraints, and architecture trades for safety and mission risk.</li> <li>Define and support verification of hazard controls and fault-protection requirements through analysis, test, simulation, and fault injection.</li> <li>Review requirements, designs, test plans, waivers, deviations, and anomaly dispositions for safety and mission assurance impacts.</li> <li>Support anomaly investigations, root cause analyses, corrective actions, design reviews, readiness reviews, and customer safety reviews.</li> <li>Maintain traceability between hazards, controls, requirements, design features, procedures, and verification evidence while integrating Quality Management System tracking with engineering design systems</li> </ul> <p><strong>What It Takes:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering, systems engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, computer engineering, or a related technical field.</li> <li>3–7 years of relevant experience in spacecraft, launch vehicles, aerospace systems, autonomous systems, or other complex safety-critical systems.</li> <li>Experience in system safety, reliability, fault management, mission assurance, or spacecraft systems engineering.</li> <li>Working knowledge of spacecraft subsystem interactions and end-to-end space vehicle operations.</li> <li>Experience developing or assessing fault detection, isolation, recovery, safing, or fault-tolerant system behavior.</li> <li>Familiarity with functional hazard assessments, fault tree analyses, failure modes and effects analyses, or similar risk-analysis methods.</li> <li>Experience developing, reviewing, or verifying technical requirements and resolving multidisciplinary technical issues.</li> <li>Strong technical writing, communication, and engineering judgment, including the ability to make risk-informed recommendations with incomplete or evolving information</li> </ul> <p><strong>What We’d Love:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Experience with range safety and AFSPCMAN 91-710 requirements.</li> <li>Experience developing space-rating assessments and mitigation strategies for commercial off-the-shelf components.</li> <li>Experience with low Earth orbit radiation environments, associated failure modes, and mitigation strategies.</li> <li>Experience developing spacecraft-level fault management, autonomous safing, mode management, or mission-recovery architectures.</li> <li>Experience with fault injection, hardware-in-the-loop testing, Monte Carlo analysis, or integrated mission simulations.</li> <li>Familiarity with government space mission assurance and experience supporting NASA, the Department of Defense, the Intelligence Community, or other U.S. government space programs.</li> <li>Experience with MBSE and requirements-management tools such as Cameo, MagicDraw, SysML, DOORS, or Jama.</li> <li>Active or previously held U.S. government security clearance.</li> </ul> <p><strong>ITAR Requirements:</strong></p> <p>To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citiz