Senior -- Telescope Systems Lead Engineer

About Cosmic Frontier

Cosmic Frontier’s mission is to dramatically expand access to high-performance space telescopes, democratize the scientific process, and build tools for exploring the Universe.

Our team owns the full lifecycle of spaceflight hardware and software—from early architecture through flight. We build and fly real hardware, and the systems you design will go to orbit within the next two years.

Role Description

We’re hiring an experienced Telescope Systems Engineer to own the end-to-end architecture of our Telescope Assembly and keep the system technically coherent as designs evolve.

This is a high-judgment, high-accountability role. You’ll make hard tradeoffs, keep performance budgets honest, and drive cross-discipline decisions to closure. You’ll spend real time with hardware—closing the loop between analysis, integration, and test—and you’ll be measured by whether the telescope works, not by the thickness of the documentation.

You will serve as the technical backbone of the Telescope Assembly and ensure it meets required optical and pointing performance under realistic flight conditions (thermal, jitter, loads, and operations).

What You’ll Do

• Own telescope assembly performance end-to-end as the Cognizant Engineer, including optical performance, stability, and system-level behavior.
• Drive decisions across disciplines (optics, optomechanical/structures, thermal, avionics/electronics, controls, firmware, software). Maintain the minimum set of requirements and interface definitions needed to move fast without breaking things.
• Build and maintain system performance budgets with explicit margin policy and change control, including:
• Optical performance (e.g., WFE, PSF, EE, MTF as appropriate to requirements)
• Stray light and scatter allocations and assumptions
• Line-of-sight stability and jitter allocations and dominant drivers
• Thermal stability and thermoelastic deformation allocations
• Telescope-assembly resource allocations (mass, power, data, timing) where they couple to performance
• Own closure of analysis and correlation (structural, thermal, optical, pointing): ensure assumptions are explicit, models are consistent, and results match measured data.
• Own verification and integration planning for the Telescope Assembly: define milestones, convert them into a test matrix, and focus early tests on the highest risks.
• Lead technical execution with suppliers and partners delivering critical telescope elements (optics fabrication, metrology/alignment GSE, mechanisms, analysis support). Define acceptance criteria, required data products, and verification methods.
• Be hands-on when it matters: expect to be in the lab during integration and test phases (alignment, metrology, troubleshooting).

What Success Looks Like in the First 90 Days

You will deliver practical execution artifacts the team uses daily, including:

• A v1 telescope assembly performance budget (optical stability) with clear margin policy, top sensitivities, and the handful of interfaces that dominate outcomes.
• A v1 resource budget and allocation table (mass, power, data, timing as relevant) with a simple process for keeping it honest through design changes.
• A concrete verification plan and test matrix for the next integration milestone, including instrumentation lists, pass/fail criteria, procedures, and expected data products.
• At least two cross-discipline decisions unblocked with documented options, rationale, owners, and follow-up actions.

Required Qualifications

• Experience taking a complex subsystem or assembly through integration and test, with the ability to describe what broke and how you fixed it.
• 5–8 years owning scope on complex aerospace or high-precision optical systems (space optical payloads strongly preferred).
• Demonstrated experience turning requirements into system performance budgets and maintaining them through design change.
• Working understanding of image quality drivers, including line-of-sight jitter, and mitigation strategies (structure, control, actuation, sensing, isolation).
• Hands-on experience with metrology and alignment of high-precision optical systems, with a track record of closing discrepancies via model-to-test correlation.
• Strong communication and judgment: ability to make tradeoffs legible, drive clarity, and move a multidisciplinary team forward.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience with low-vibration, high-stability optical systems, launch loads, and environmental qualification (vibe, TVAC, EMI as applicable).
• Familiarity with aerospace verification discipline and clean integration practices (contamination control, configuration management).
• Experience in fast-moving development programs where ambiguity is high and delivery still matters.

Leveling and Compensation

We hire at the level that matches scope and ownership:

• L4: $120,000 – $160,000 (owns major assembly budgets and interfaces under senior guidance)
• L5: $170,000 – $250,000 (owns telescope assembly architecture, trade space, budgets, and verification strategy end-to-end)

Benefits

• Unlimited PTO, sick leave, parental leave, bereavement leave
• Medical, dental, vision, reproductive healthcare, HSA/FSA, life and disability insurance, One Medical
• 401(k), education benefits, cell phone and Wi-Fi reimbursement
• One-time work-from-home stipend, commuter benefits, wellness programs

Export Control

Due to the nature of the products and information handled in this role, employment is restricted to U.S. Persons as defined by U.S. export control laws.

Diversity & Inclusion

We encourage anyone excited about this role to apply, even if you don’t meet 100% of the qualifications. We value builders with strong judgment, high ownership, and a track record of making complex systems work in the real world.

Recruiting, hiring, mentoring, and retaining a diverse workforce is critical to our success. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status.

Cosmic Frontier Labs is a Program and Operating Division of the Renaissance Philanthropy Fund. Renaissance Philanthropy is an equal-opportunity employer committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.