Mission Architect, Hypersonic & Strategic Defense Programs

Hypersonic Mission Architect

Firefly Aerospace is a space and defense technology company that enables our world to launch, land, and operate in space – anywhere, anytime. As the partner of choice for critical space missions, Firefly is the only commercial company to launch a satellite to orbit with 24-hour notice and the only company to achieve a successful Moon landing. Our launch vehicles, lunar landers, and orbital vehicles provide government and commercial customers with full mission services from low Earth orbit to the Moon and beyond. Headquartered in north Austin, Texas, Firefly is looking for passionate, hardworking innovators to join our team and help fuel our successful trajectory into space.

As the Hypersonic Mission Architect, you will serve as Firefly's senior technical authority for designing and leading end-to-end hypersonic mission architectures in support of hypersonic test, demonstration, and defense-focused missions, with specific emphasis on targets and countermeasures and suborbital access to hypersonic testing corridors. This position reports to the Director of Hypersonic & Strategic Defense Programs.

This role is a senior technical leadership position responsible for mission architecture from early customer engagement through proposal submission and into execution. You will architect missions spanning launch vehicle trajectory design, full boost-glide-payload systems, and integrated all-up-round (AUR) mission design, operating at both the mission and vehicle levels.

What You'll Do

• Lead end-to-end hypersonic mission architecture for test, demonstration, and defense missions including targets & countermeasures and suborbital corridor access
• Serve as Technical Lead and named Proposal Technical Lead for hypersonic pursuits, owning technical concepts, architectures, and proposal volumes
• Perform trajectory analysis and optimization, boost + glide staging trades, and intercept geometry analysis for integrated hypersonic missions
• Develop mission-level modeling and simulation environments to assess system performance, mission feasibility, and customer objectives
• Architect payloads, targets, and RV systems integrated with Firefly-adapted launch vehicles
• Design launch and space vehicle mission architectures supporting hypersonic applications
• Lead launch vehicle adaptation for hypersonic flight profiles, suborbital corridors, and test range integration
• Develop mission CONOPS across vehicle, payload, range, and customer interfaces
• Lead interdisciplinary engineering teams across guidance, navigation & control (GNC), propulsion, structures, payloads, and operations
• Interface directly with DoD customers, laboratories, and partners to shape future hypersonic test and demonstration architectures
• Support active programs through technical authority, architecture evolution, and flight execution support

What We're Looking For

Required Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor's degree (Master's degree preferred) in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, or related technical field
• Experience: 15+ years of experience in aerospace, space systems, hypersonic, or national security flight systems

Mission Architecture Expertise:

• Hypersonic mission design and system-of-systems architecture
• Launch vehicle trajectory design and optimization
• Full boost-glide-payload mission architectures
• Integrated all-up-round (AUR) mission design
• Payloads, targets, RVs, and countermeasure architectures
• Test range and hypersonic corridor integration
• Commercial launch vehicle adaptation for specialized trajectories
• Intercept geometry and endgame analysis

Technical Depth:

• Flight mechanics and GNC
• End-to-end performance modeling
• Mission-level modeling & simulation

Business & Capture Leadership:

• Proven experience serving as a Proposal Technical Lead
• Ability to shape customer requirements, write technical volumes, and lead capture efforts

Customer Engagement:

• Deep familiarity working with U.S. Department of War programs and stakeholders
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to brief senior leadership and government customers
• Proven ability to lead, mentor, and influence multidisciplinary technical teams
• High integrity, sound technical judgment, and ability to manage multiple high-priority efforts
• U.S. Citizenship required
• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance

Desired Qualifications

• Master's or PhD in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, or related field

Firefly offers outstanding benefits for our employees, including generous health, dental and vision plans with low plan deductibles, parental leave, educational reimbursement, short term disability, and flexible PTO options.