Senior Instrument Systems Engineer

About the role

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Muon seeks a Senior Instrument Systems Engineer to join our team in Mountain View or San Jose, CA with a focus on infrared remote sensing instruments. The ideal candidate is a self-motivated engineer with a versatile skill set who is comfortable working across many layers of technical depth from individual components through system level. This role will be a key member of the instrument engineering team, driving development from concept through on-orbit operations for our national security missions. Previous experience developing and operating infrared electro-optical systems, remote sensing instruments, and test infrastructure in fast-paced and small-team environments is preferred.

This position is hybrid and requires working on-site in our Mountain View or San Jose, CA office three days per week.

Responsibilities

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• Lead instrument architecture trades, define concept of operations, own radiometric model and throughput budget, drive requirements decomposition/flowdown and verification and validation (V&V) planning.
• Develop and manage technical budgets, including mass, power, thermal, line-of-sight pointing/jitter, and data volume, to ensure adequate margins throughout development.
• Develop comprehensive interface control documents (ICDs) across mechanical, thermal, electrical, and software interfaces, to drive a modular instrument architecture.
• Support optical instrument assembly, integration, and test (AI&T) planning and implementation, including collaboration with cross-functional teams.
• Champion the continuous improvement of systems engineering methodologies, tools, and best practices to enhance overall efficiency in instrument development.
• Collaborate and communicate effectively with subsystem engineers and analysts, instrument and spacecraft systems engineers, AI&T and production teams, program managers, external partner teams, and other stakeholders.
• This position p...