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Salary: USD 170,000 - 243,000 / annual
Muon Space, a LEO satellite constellation provider founded in 2021, seeks a Principal Mission Architect to lead mission development and formulation for international customers. This is a senior technical leadership role focused on designing end-to-end space mission architectures with emphasis on opportunities outside the United States.
Key responsibilities include developing complete mission concepts aligned with customer needs, performing mission-level analysis and owning top-level mission budgets, defining requirements and designing missions and payloads, and conducting spacecraft performance and constellation configuration evaluations. You will leverage software tools and coding (Python, Julia, Matlab, C, C++) to explore engineering trade studies and answer critical system design questions. The role requires close collaboration with instrument design teams, discipline engineers, and scientists to ensure products meet mission objectives.
The ideal candidate is a versatile, self-motivated engineer with 12+ years of space mission experience (B.S. in engineering or higher; advanced degrees count as 2 years each). Required expertise includes spacecraft design, space mission design, and strong communication and presentation skills. You must be comfortable working with international customers and managing teams of engineers to develop cost-effective solutions. The position involves 30% international travel to support solution development and business opportunities, plus periodic travel to the Mountain View, CA facility for in-person collaboration, builds, and testing.
Nice-to-have qualifications include experience with international space programs, supporting science teams, designing constellations, and spacecraft/constellation operations. This is a fast-paced role with new technical challenges weekly. The company operates a state-of-the-art Silicon Valley facility optimized for spacecraft manufacturing and rapid payload integration. Muon's mission spans climate monitoring to national security applications, delivering Earth Intelligence for global resilience.
