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Salary: USD 256,000 - 293,000 / annual
Muon Space, a LEO satellite constellation provider founded in 2021, seeks a Senior Director of EO/IR Instrument Engineering to lead strategy, development, and delivery of its electro-optical and infrared instrument portfolio from system architecture through on-orbit calibration.
You will build and mentor a multidisciplinary engineering organization roughly doubling in size while establishing technical direction and operational rigor to scale across a growing portfolio of flight programs. Reporting to the SVP of Mission Execution, you will serve on the Mission Execution leadership team, shaping Muon's EO/IR strategy and driving successful execution of the instrument portfolio.
Key responsibilities include:
**Strategy & Leadership**: Define which EO/IR missions and markets Muon pursues in partnership with the executive team. Own the multi-year investment plan for instrument technology, lab and test infrastructure, and organizational operating budget. Represent Muon's EO/IR capability to customers, partners, and the national security community at the executive level.
**Instrument Delivery**: Be the single accountable owner for EO/IR instrument performance, cost, and schedule on every program Muon flies. Commit credible instrument estimates to program management and proposal teams, then deliver against them. Run the technical review cadence for the portfolio: requirements, PDR/CDR, test readiness, pre-ship, and on-orbit performance reviews.
**Technical Direction**: Work with the Product Team to define Muon's EO/IR instrument roadmap including reusable architectures, common focal plane and electronics building blocks, and make/buy strategy for optics, detectors, and cryocoolers. Hold final technical authority on radiometric performance budgets (SNR, NEdT, MTF, stray light, geolocation), calibration approach, and contamination control. Drive design-for-manufacture so instruments can be built at constellation rates.
**Organization Building**: Hire roughly 20 engineers and managers over the next year while maintaining high hiring standards. Develop reporting managers and create clear career paths for senior individual contributors. Stand up processes, lab capability, and test infrastructure needed to scale.
**Cross-functional Leadership**: Partner with Mission Systems on mission requirements and end-to-end performance, and with Production and Supply Chain on the transition from development to rate production. Represent EO/IR instruments to customers in proposals and at the Mission Execution leadership table.
Year-one success metrics include: approved EO/IR strategy and multi-year investment plan; every EO/IR program with instrument plan, budget, and schedule being met; Instrument AI&T manager hired and organization staffed to plan; reusable instrument architecture and roadmap in use on new proposals; documented, repeatable calibration and test flow from lab to orbit producing flight data meeting requirements.
The role is hybrid, requiring on-site presence in Mountain View, CA three days per week.
**Requirements**:
- BS in physics, optical engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, or related field
- 20+ years developing EO/IR imaging instruments, with at least 10 years leading engineering organizations
- Technical leadership of at least two space flight EO/IR instruments from concept through launch and on-orbit checkout
- Led an organization of 40+ people through multiple layers of management, with accountability for its budget
- Working command of the full instrument chain: optical design, focal plane arrays and readout electronics, thermal and cryogenic design, radiometric calibration, and on-orbit performance
- Record of owning instrument cost and schedule commitments, and representing an instrument or payload portfolio to customers and senior executives
- Ability to work on-site at Bay Area facilities
- U.S. person status as required by ITAR/EAR
**Nice-to-have Skills**:
- MS or PhD in Optics, Physics, or Electrical Engineering
- MWIR/LWIR instrument experience, including cooled focal planes (HgCdTe, InSb, or T2SL) and cryocooler integration
- Delivery of multiple units of the same instrument design, ideally at constellation scale
- Small satellite or commercial space experience where cost and cycle time drove architecture
- Earth observation, wildfire, weather, or national security EO/IR mission background
- Active security clearance or eligibility to obtain one
- Prior VP or director-of-directors role with experience building an organization through rapid growth, including hiring and developing first-time managers
