Director, Mission Engineering & Management
$188,600–$267,720 year
On-site · Long Beach, California, United States
Job Summary
Director, Mission Engineering & Management at Vast owns the program and mission execution for a constellation-ready spacecraft bus product line. The role encompasses managing the integrated master schedule (IMS), system-level requirements, budgets, customer relationships, and launch campaign planning; serving as the internal voice of the customer and coordinating across engineering, business development, and procurement to ensure executable commitments. The position requires leading schedule tracking, risk management, and cross-functional coordination for a multi-satellite demo launch (10 manifest slots) with the goal of scaling to hundreds of spacecraft per year from the Long Beach, CA location. The incumbent collaborates with engineering leadership, negotiates payload requirements and launch contracts, and helps align engineering trades with programmatic objectives while maintaining strong communication with customers and internal stakeholders.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, or a related technical discipline
- 8+ years of engineering experience in aerospace or defense
- 3+ years of program management, mission engineering, or systems engineering leadership experience
- Experience running satellite or complex hardware delivery programs — schedule, cost, customer management
- Strong systems engineering background — you can own requirements, budgets, and interfaces, not just track them
- Experience managing multi-unit builds (constellation, batch production, or similar)
- Managed customer and launch vehicle provider relationships
- Comfortable with fast-paced, lean programs — you're the kind of person who runs the schedule in a spreadsheet before the formal tools are set up
- Strong written and verbal communication — you'll represent the program to customers and leadership
- Preferred Skills & Experience: Able to obtain a security clearance
- Launch campaign experience (any launch provider)
- Payload accommodation and ICD negotiation experience across multiple customer types
- Experience with launch site facility operations
- Spectrum licensing and regulatory coordination
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