Sr. Systems Engineer

Blue Canyon Technologies, RTX's small satellite manufacturer and mission services provider, is solving some of the toughest challenges in space. Our components and bus platforms have completed missions ranging from very-low Earth orbits to lunar and interplanetary journeys at a fraction of the cost of traditional space systems. We support premier defense, commercial and civil organizations including the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, NASA, MIT Lincoln Lab, the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Colorado and more. Join our innovative and dynamic company as we build, test and operate the small spacecraft of the future.

Position Purpose: 

As the Sr. Systems Engineer for ADCS products, you'll own the day-to-day technical execution of BCT's integrated attitude determination and control systems – the avionics boxes that have enabled hundreds of spacecraft and missions. You will integrate other BCT components (star trackers, reaction wheels, CMGs, torque rods, and sun sensors) into a spacecraft-specific ADCS system that you own end to end. From experiences from each unit built, you influence product roadmaps, so the next generation integrates better than the last. You're embedded in the Components team with the authority to lead technical development, run issue investigations, and keep maturing products that are already in production. 

You're the technical "glue" for the team. You take ownership naturally when things are ambiguous or need attention, and you don't wait for perfect requirements to start asking the right questions and moving issues forward. You communicate clearly, stay steady under pressure, and lead through influence by creating clarity, aligning the team, and helping others make sound, product-minded decisions. What matters most is products that can be built, tested, and delivered at scale through engineering decisions that hold up on the factory floor and on orbit. 

This is a high-ownership, hands-on role. If you're the kind of person who reads an ambiguous problem and starts pulling on threads, you'll do well here. 

Title: Senior Systems Engineer

Position Type: Full Time

Pay Range: $108,000 - $180,000

(Salary to be determined by the education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities of the applicant, internal equity, and alignment with market data.)

On-site position at our Boulder, CO location (work locations are subject to change based on business need).

Benefits:

• Employer sponsored health, dental, and vision benefits effective the first of the month following hire date
• Life insurance
• 401k (matching 4% with a minimum 5% contribution)
• Generous PTO (3 weeks of vacation + 3 floating holidays, 2 weeks of sick time, 7 paid holidays throughout the year) and parental leave

Job Responsibilities: 

• Internalize the integrated system. Become the person who understands the ADCS systems broadly and deeply (where the interfaces are, how the components behave together, and what drives system-level performance) and is able to answer most technical questions from your own knowledge but knowing when and which expert to pull in across mechanical, electrical, and software 

• Keep the disciplines aligned. Lead design reviews, risk burn-downs, and internal engineering meetings; anticipate integration issues and resolve interface gaps before they escalate, and mentor Level 1/2 engineers by modeling clear ownership and technical rigor. 

• Drive test and qualification. Contribute to test planning, qualification campaigns, and design validation, making sure coverage maps to system requirements. 

• Influence the component interfaces and roadmaps. Act as the internal customer for the star tracker, wheel, CMG, and sensor lines by defining what the integrated system needs from them, holding the interfaces clean, and steering their technical direction so each generation integrates better than the last. 

• Support customer-facing discussions. Communicate status, design intent, and risk credibly to people who are not familiar with the product or its capabilities 

• Own production support and sustainment. Keep products in active production and delivered flight hardware healthy (configuration management, EIDP generation, and post-delivery troubleshooting) while partnering with Operations to find bottlenecks, cut lead time, and surface performance trends early. 

• Lead failure investigations. Drive root cause to closure, eliminate recurring quality issues, and feed corrective actions back into design and verification. 

• Own the engineering documentation including ICDs, verification matrices, test plans, and user guides.
• May include personnel management responsibilities.
• Other responsibilities as assigned.

Required Qualifications: 

• Bachelor’s degree in Systems, Aerospace, Mechanical, or Electrical Engineering or a related technical discipline
• 7+ years of relevant engineering experience
  
• A technical degree (Systems, Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical, or similar) and 7+ years of experience.

• Proven experience taking space-qualified hardware through development, test, delivery, and integration. 

• Strong systems engineering fundamentals including interface definition and control, requirements decomposition, and verification planning with a track record of owning the artifacts (CM, ICDs, verification matrices, qual test plans). 

• Direct involvement in failure investigations and root cause analysis, with corrective actions you saw implemented 

• The ability to lead cross-functional technical reviews and communicate clearly in both technical and customer-facing settings.
• Related technical experience may be considered in lieu of education.

Preferred Qualifications: 

• Spacecraft systems, ADCS or GNC component experience (star trackers, reaction wheels, CMGs, torque rods, sun sensors) 

• Hands-on support of on-orbit flight hardware or customer post-delivery troubleshooting 

• Sustaining engineering practices including configuration management and performance trending 

• A track record of surfacing and resolving cross-functional risks early 

• Quality improvements driven across multiple flight programs or product lines 

• Rapid prototyping, agile hardware, or concurrent engineering environments 

• A "figure it out and get it done" instinct 

Working Conditions:

This job operates in a professional office environment, but in a manufacturing company. This role uses standard office equipment such as computers, phones, photocopiers, scanners, filing cabinets and fax machines. BCT anticipates the application window closing approximately 40 days from the date the notice was posted.  However, factors such as candidate flow and business necessity may require BCT to shorten or extend the application window.

Physical Demands and Work Environment:

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to sit for long periods of time. The employee is occasionally required to stand, bend, reach, and walk. The position requires some light physical effort. This would require the ability to lift or move objects up to 10 pounds and occasionally lift or move objects up to 25 pounds. Specific vision abilities are required by this job which includes close vision, distance vision, and ability to adjust focus.

Blue Canyon Technologies is a drug-free workplace and an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO)/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, marital status, veteran status, or any other protected factor. Colorado Residents:  In any materials you submit, you may redact or remove age-identifying information such as age, date of birth, or dates of school attendance or graduation.  You will not be penalized for redacting or removing this information.  Blue Canyon Technologies is committed to providing access, equal opportunity, and reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities in employment, its services, programs, and activities. To request a reasonable accommodation, contact Melissa Po at
[email protected].

We recommend applying directly via the Blue Canyon Technologies website, careers page: 
https://www.bluecanyontech.com/careers