System Engineer - Safety / Fault Protection at Space Kinetic in El Segundo, California

Job description

• A New Paradigm For Space Operations.
• We are seeking a System Engineer with a focus on Safety / Fault Protection to ensure our space vehicles can safely and reliably accomplish their missions. This role will identify mission risks, evaluate off-nominal conditions, and influence spacecraft architecture, verification planning, and fault-protection strategies for government space programs.

Responsibilities

• Perform hazard analyses, fault tree analyses, FMEAs, and other safety assessments.
• Identify hazard controls, residual risks, and single-point, common-cause, and cascading failures.
• Develop fault detection, isolation, containment, recovery, and safing requirements.
• Evaluate spacecraft architecture, autonomy, modes, command paths, and off-nominal behavior.
• Translate safety objectives into verifiable system and subsystem requirements.
• Verify hazard controls through analysis, testing, simulation, and fault injection.
• Support anomaly investigations, corrective actions, design reviews, readiness reviews, and customer safety reviews.
• Maintain traceability across hazards, controls, requirements, procedures, and verification evidence.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace, Systems, Electrical, Mechanical, or Computer Engineering or a related field.
• 3–7 years of experience with spacecraft, launch vehicles, autonomous systems, or other safety-critical systems.
• Experience in system safety, reliability, fault management, mission assurance, or spacecraft systems engineering.
• Knowledge of spacecraft subsystem interactions and end-to-end vehicle operations.
• Experience with fault protection, hazard assessments, fault tree analyses, FMEAs, or similar methods.
• Experience developing and verifying technical requirements across multiple engineering disciplines.
• Strong technical writing, communication, and risk-informed engineering judgment.
• Experience with range safety and AFSPCMAN 91-710.
• Knowledge of COTS space-rating assessments or low Earth orbit radiation risks.
• Experience with spacecraft fault management, autonomous safing, or mission-recovery architectures.
• Experience with fault injection, hardware-in-the-loop testing, Monte Carlo analysis, or mission simulations.
• Experience supporting NASA, the Department of Defense, the Intelligence Community, or other government space programs.
• Experience with MBSE and requirements tools such as Cameo, MagicDraw, SysML, DOORS, or Jama.
• Active or previously held U.S. government security clearance.

Skills

Required

• System safety
• Reliability
• Fault management
• Mission assurance
• Spacecraft systems engineering
• Fault protection
• Hazard assessments
• Fault tree analyses
• FMEAs
• Strong technical writing
• Communication
• Risk-informed engineering judgment

Preferred

• Range safety
• AFSPCMAN 91-710
• COTS space-rating assessments
• Low Earth orbit radiation risks
• Spacecraft fault management
• Autonomous safing
• Mission-recovery architectures
• Fault injection

Benefits

• The annual base salary for this role is below. Pay Grades are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data.  Individual pay will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: interviews and an assessment of several factors that are unique to each candidate, job-related skills, relevant education/experience, certifications, abilities of the candidate and internal equity.
• Pay Range
• $135,000 - $165,000 USD