Anduril Industries
Systems Engineer, Spacecraft Operations (RPO)
About this role
Anduril Industries seeks a Systems Engineer to lead rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) for spacecraft, owning mission planning, procedures, and pre-launch validation. You'll design relative motion trajectories, build safety protocols, and drive operational readiness from AI&T through on-orbit execution for DoD and allied space missions.
What you'll do
- Design and own RPO mission plans including relative motion, approach sequencing, delta-V budgets, and timeline coordination with communications and ground contact
- Author flight rules, procedures, and keep-out volume enforcement for close approach operations with abort and contingency criteria
- Lead pre-launch campaign with day-in-the-life rehearsals, failure injection, and mission readiness activities across all mission phases
- Validate procedures and command sequences on flatsats and hardware-in-the-loop testbeds; feed operational constraints back to GNC and flight software teams
- Triage anomalies, root cause failures, and coordinate next steps under time pressure during testing and operations
- Support regulatory compliance and licensing coordination with government agencies for spacecraft and proximity operations
What they're looking for
- Spacecraft operations and mission planning
- Astrodynamics and relative orbit design
- Flight dynamics and maneuver planning
- RPO execution and proximity operations trajectory design
- Flight rules and procedures authoring
- STK/Astrogator, MATLAB, or Simulink
- Python and Linux systems
- Conjunction assessment and space traffic coordination
Benefits
- Competitive equity grants included in full-time offers
- Work on critical AI-powered space domain awareness systems
- Collaborate with DoD and IC mission partners
- Operationally-relevant fielding timelines and cutting-edge autonomy technology
- Direct impact on U.S. military space capabilities
- Support for demanding schedules during launches and on-orbit operations
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Anduril Industries
Anduril Industries builds autonomous defense systems including underwater vehicles, unmanned aircraft, and electronic warfare platforms for the Department of Defense. The company is hiring across mechanical engineering, mission operations, software development, technical leadership, and advanced manufacturing roles to support the design, deployment, and production of these mission-critical systems.
- Website
- anduril.com
Likely interview questions
- Describe your most complex RPO planning experience: what relative motion design challenges did you solve, and how did you validate safety constraints?
- Walk us through how you've taken a spacecraft from pre-launch validation through operational readiness—what testing gaps did you identify and fix?