This role is a part of Test & Flight Operations team, providing centralized support to Business Units with the focus on design, build and maintenance of the ground systems, test and launch facilities across multiple locations

As part of a small, hardworking, and accomplished team, you will lead Mission Operations Infrastructure development for the Mission Operations Systems team on Blue Origin’s Lunar Permanence program. You will be responsible for conceiving, developing, testing, and deploying innovative and modern ground systems that enable Earth-based operators to perform mission-critical functions in support of Blue Moon missions. These include Mission Control workstations, voice systems, and display systems; datacenters for highly reliable computational and storage resources; space-to-ground communications systems; fault-tolerant, high-capacity networks connecting mission nodes; and data interfaces and data transport between Blue Origin, customers, and partners.

You will work in a fast-paced dynamic environment, contributing innovative solutions, while demonstrating personal leadership, technical competence, and attention to detail. This position will directly impact the history of space exploration and will require your dedicated commitment and detailed attention toward safe and reliable spaceflight.

We are looking for someone to apply their technical expertise, leadership skills, and dedication to quality to positively impact safe human spaceflight. Passion for our mission and vision is required!

Responsibilities:

• Specify, design, implement, test, verify, and deploy flight operations, and safety-critical systems, ensuring the success of the overall Mission Operations Systems (hardware/software) supporting lunar mission operations.
• Perform trade studies to determine the architecture and capabilities of mission systems to best meet mission operations requirements, cost, and schedule
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams, including engineers representing flight vehicle systems, ground software, flight control operators, and customers to define ground system and data communications requirements, architectures, and designs that enable highly effective and labor-efficient real-time spacecraft and ground system operation, systems performance assessment and inter-team communication and coordination
• Develop rapid prototypes to prove concepts and quantify technical risks
• Integrate components, create and run unit tests, validate Software-in-the-Loop and Hardware-in-the-Loop simulators, and certify systems for training and flight
• Coordinate with flight control software and mission system engineers to plan, develop, and lead system verification and qualification, to ensure that mission systems products meet system requirements and safety-critical standards.
• Lead the effort to integrate Blue Origin facilities, ground systems, and ground-space communications networks as the foundation for Blue Origin lunar missions
• Formulate, develop, and maintain ground-to-ground interface control documents (ICDs); contribute to space-to-ground ICDs; and define and perform verification and validation events for these interfaces.
• Produce technical documentation for ground data system architecture, design, verification plans, user manual, and training material.
• Follow development processes that meet Blue Origin and customer-required standards to ensure mission systems safety and reliability.
• Support frequent update cycles for pre-flight testing, mission validation exercises, and operations training events.
• Support mission control infrastructure operations responsibilities (maintenance, flaw correction, enhancements) during operator training, spacecraft integration, and flight.

Minimum Qualifications: 

• B.S. or higher degree in computer engineering, electrical engineering, computer science, mathematics, physics, aerospace engineering, or related field or equivalent experience
• 5 years of relevant space-related space mission-oriented ground systems development experience
• Experience in one or more of the following: radio frequency (RF) communications system design and analysis, network communications, data center development and/or commercial cloud-based data center utilization, voice loop systems, ground-based communications antenna and electronics design, deployment, and maintenance
• Experience in engineering over the full lifecycle of development, including system design and analysis, requirement capture and development, implementation and verification, system integration, qualification, and release
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to work collaboratively in a fast-paced, dynamic work environment
• Ability to earn trust, maintain positive and professional relationships, and contribute to a culture of inclusion
• Demonstrated track record of resourcefulness from their previous assignments
• Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience in developing software, supporting teams with oversight and control of systems in mission-critical applications (e.g. spaceflight, nuclear power, business-critical web services, etc.)
• Experience designing and developing ground systems for human space flight operations
• On-console operations experience for space flight, or in other safety-critical operations domains
• Experience in the development and deployment of electronics, antennas, and facilities for ground-based communications stations
• Demonstrated software development skills in C/C and Python
• Familiarity with Linux environment and comfortable with basic Unix system administration activities
• Experience in web development and/or database development and interfaces
• Experience with communications protocols for space applications (e.g. CCSDS)
• Experience with fault-tolerant systems design, human error assessment and human error prevention and fault tolerance
• Experience with spacecraft subsystems and associated subsystem software
• Leadership experience in an aerospace R&D environment
• Experience with collaboration tools such as Confluence and JIRA
• Familiarity with version control (e.g. Git, Subversion, etc.)
• Experience working with and proposing to U.S. Government research agencies (e.g. NASA, AFRL, DARPA)