Mission Design and Ground Navigation Engineer

BLUE ORIGIN • Denver, CO

6d

About The Position

At Blue Origin, we envision millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. We’re working to develop reusable, safe, and low-cost space vehicles and systems within a culture of safety, collaboration, and inclusion. Join our team of problem solvers as we add new chapters to the history of spaceflight! This role is part of the Lunar Permanence business unit, which develops Blue Origin’s Blue Moon landers and related products. To further Blue Origin's mission of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth, we are building sustainable infrastructure for our transport of crew and cargo from Earth to the lunar surface. As part of a hardworking team of engineers, you will join our Mission Design and Ground Navigation team within the Mission Operations System IPT. You will share in the team’s impact on all aspects of the trajectory for spacecraft from Earth to the Moon! Expect to be a technical contributor to the Blue Moon program within the Lunar Permanence business unit. You will develop reference trajectories, perform ground navigation analysis, and support integrated vehicle trade studies. Additionally, you will perform dispersed trajectory analysis and develop off-nominal concept of operations. You will be responsible for exemplifying best practices, balanced technical judgment, and superior work ethic in a time-constrained environment. We are looking for someone to apply their technical expertise, leadership skills, and commitment to quality to positively impact safe human spaceflight. Passion for our mission and vision is required!

Requirements

• B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related fields
• 5+ years of proven experience focused on trajectory analysis, flight dynamics, or mission design
• Strong fundamentals in orbital mechanics and astrodynamics
• Applied experience in the mission design lifecycle from conceptualization through operational flight
• Understanding of ground-based navigation and statistical orbit determination
• Significant applied experience in one or more mission design and trajectory optimization tools, such as Monte, Copernicus, EMTG, STK/ODTK, FreeFlyer, or GMAT
• Applied experience in one or more of the following languages: Julia, Python, C++, Rust, or MATLAB
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills

Nice To Haves

• M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related fields
• 7+ years of proven experience focused on trajectory analysis, flight dynamics, or mission design
• Demonstrated expertise in the ground-based navigation and statistical orbit determination processes
• Demonstrated expertise in trajectory optimization
• Experience analyzing Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit
• Experience using the Monte software package
• Experience performing spacecraft operations (e.g. navigation support, maneuver planning, or real0time anomaly resolution)
• Experience with DevOps processes including configuration control, continuous development and deployment workflows, Agile methodologies, and software code review.
• Experience with software development tooling such as Jira, git, Jenkins, Docker, Visual Studio, or VSCode

Responsibilities

• Design Earth-to-Moon trajectories
• Design Rendezvous, Proximity Operations, and Docking trajectories
• Analyze dispersed trajectories and delta-v budgets
• Support ground-based navigation and orbit determination analysis
• Conduct analyses and trades to validate mission requirements
• Develop flight dynamics operational software
• Present results and support gated reviews

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision, basic and supplemental life insurance, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability, 401(k) with a company match of up to 5%, and an Education Support Program.
• Paid Time Off: Up to four (4) weeks per year based on weekly scheduled hours, and up to 14 company-paid holidays.
• Dependent on role type and job level, employees may be eligible for benefits and bonuses based on the company's intent to reward individual contributions and enable them to share in the company's results, or other factors at the company's sole discretion.
• Bonus amounts and eligibility are not guaranteed and subject to change and cancellation.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level