SlipstreamJobs tracks this role from the company's public career site. Apply directly on the employer's site.
Salary: USD 160,000 - 245,000 / annual
K2 Space is building the largest and highest-power satellites ever flown, backed by over $1 billion in funding from leading investors including Altimeter Capital, ICONIQ, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Redpoint Ventures, and T. Rowe Price. The company has over $1 billion in signed contracts across commercial and US government customers and is mass-producing high-power satellite platforms for missions from LEO to deep space, with multiple launches planned for 2027 and scaling to 100 satellites per year.
As Principal Crypto Engineer reporting to the VP of Satellite Engineering & Operations, you will own the technical architecture and design of Type-1 cryptographic integrations across the spacecraft, payload, and ground segment. You will lead these designs from concept and trade studies through implementation, integration, and test. You will define how K2's satellites protect command, telemetry, and mission data at the hardware and software level, and build it to fit a high-volume satellite production line. You will work hand-in-hand with K2's COMSEC Certification Lead on the National Security team, who owns the path to NSA approval. This is a foundational role setting the cryptographic design standards the rest of the program builds against.
Key responsibilities include: owning end-to-end technical architecture of Type-1 cryptographic integrations; leading crypto designs from concept through implementation, integration, and test; designing encryption, key management, and key loading implementations for command, telemetry, and mission data; integrating cryptographic functions into flight software, avionics, FPGA, RF, and ground systems; defining hardware and software interfaces between crypto equipment and broader system architecture; producing design documentation and test evidence for certification; identifying and mitigating cryptographic design risks across hardware, software, and RF boundaries; establishing reusable cryptographic designs, interfaces, and standards for production scaling; and supporting anomaly resolution for fielded and on-orbit crypto systems.
You will travel up to 15% of the time and must be able to work irregular business hours to support critical project timelines. Export compliance: the role requires access to ITAR-controlled information and items; you must be a U.S. Person as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15 or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export control license.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Bachelor's degree or higher in electrical engineering, computer engineering, computer science, or related discipline
- 5+ years of engineering experience designing or integrating cryptographic systems or secure communications
- Hands-on experience integrating NSA Type-1 cryptographic equipment into a hardware or software system
- Working knowledge of key management and key loading implementations
- Strong systems-level thinking with ability to reason from first principles across hardware, software, and RF boundaries
- Ability to work in fast-paced, autonomously driven, demanding startup atmosphere with competing priorities and aggressive schedules
- Active Top Secret or Top Secret SCI clearance required; ability to obtain and maintain access to additional programs as needed
NICE TO HAVE:
- Experience with spacecraft, satellite, or other space-system cryptographic integrations
- Experience with embedded systems, FPGA design, or flight software
- Familiarity with cryptographic modernization initiatives and current NSA-approved algorithms and equipment
- Background in RF, link design, or secure command and telemetry systems
- Exposure to NSA certification processes
