What You'll Do- Own the effectiveness of Katalyst's engineering organization and the technical quality of its spacecraft, payload, software, and mission-delivery work across parallel programs.
- Set a clear engineering operating model that defines decision rights, technical ownership, review expectations, interface management, configuration discipline, risk escalation, and the minimum process required to move quickly without losing rigor.
- Lead, develop, and hold accountable engineering managers, directors, chief engineers, and senior technical leaders; build an organization where strong leaders can make decisions independently and teams know what excellent execution looks like.
- Ensure major spacecraft architectures and technical baselines are coherent, traceable, and executable across systems, structures, avionics, power, GNC, propulsion, software, payloads, manufacturing, integration, test, and mission operations.
- Drive disciplined technical decision-making across competing mission objectives, customer needs, schedule, cost, reliability, manufacturability, and risk; personally engage when cross-program or irreversible decisions require executive technical judgment.
- Establish an engineering rhythm that creates visibility into technical maturity, critical risks, staffing constraints, design changes, verification readiness, and program blockers without turning the organization into a reporting bureaucracy.
- Partner closely with Program, Product, Operations, Manufacturing, Supply Chain, Quality, Finance, and executive leadership to align engineering capacity and technical priorities to company strategy and customer commitments.
- Raise the bar for requirements, interfaces, design reviews, analysis, verification, test, anomaly resolution, configuration management, and flight readiness while preserving Katalyst's bias toward hands-on ownership and speed.
- Build the engineering talent system: organizational design, hiring priorities, succession planning, performance management, technical career paths, mentorship, and leadership development for a rapidly scaling deep-tech organization.
- Create mechanisms for lessons learned from prototype builds, environmental test, integration, launch, flight operations, and anomalies to become durable improvements in architecture, process, tools, and team capability.
- Represent engineering with customers, external partners, technical reviewers, and other high-stakes stakeholders; communicate complex technical posture, risk, and tradeoffs clearly and credibly.
What We're Looking For Required - Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a related technical discipline; advanced degree is preferred but not required.
- 10+ years of experience developing complex aerospace, spacecraft, defense, robotics, autonomous, or other mission-critical hardware/software systems, including substantial engineering leadership responsibility.
- Demonstrated accountability for an engineering organization or major multi-disciplinary technical function through design, integration, qualification, and operational delivery.
- Direct end-to-end ownership of one or more spacecraft missions through system integration, environmental qualification, launch, and on-orbit operations.
- Breadth across spacecraft hardware and software disciplines, with enough depth to engage credibly in architecture, interfaces, verification, test, and anomaly decisions.
- Direct experience leading engineering managers and senior technical leaders across multiple disciplines; proven ability to scale leadership rather than relying on personal heroics.
- Deep systems-level technical fluency and the judgment to challenge assumptions, identify architectural risk, evaluate tradeoffs, and know when to go deep versus delegate.
- Experience establishing technical baselines, requirements/interface discipline, design-review practices, configuration/change control, verification strategy, and risk-management mechanisms for complex systems.
- Experience balancing multiple programs or product lines with shared engineering resources, competing priorities, changing requirements, and aggressive schedules.
- Strong executive communication skills with the ability to translate engineering reality into clear decisions for technical teams, program leaders, customers, and company leadership.
- Track record of hiring and developing exceptional technical leaders, building succession depth, and addressing performance gaps directly and constructively.
- Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, highly collaborative environment where ownership, urgency, humility, and exceptionally high standards are essential.
Your Ideal Background Preferred - Experience transitioning from early demonstration or R&D missions into repeatable follow-on spacecraft or product execution.
- Experience building or materially reshaping an engineering organization in a startup, new-space, high-growth, or other low-structure environment.
- Experience with government and/or national-security space programs, customer-facing technical reviews, proposal/capture support, or mission assurance expectations.
- Direct experience with GNC, rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO), intercept, or interplanetary missions.
- Experience partnering with manufacturing, supply chain, quality, test, and operations to move complex flight hardware from development into disciplined execution.
Additional Requirements: Must be willing to work extended hours and weekends as needed.
Compensation and Benefits: Your base salary will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: job-related knowledge and skills, education, and experience. The anticipated salary range for this role is $214,000 - $284,000 annually.
Base salary is just one part of your total rewards package at Katalyst. You will also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of the Employee Stock Option and Equity Plan, as well as a relocation bonus and other discretionary bonuses. You will also receive access to comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage, and unlimited Paid Time Off.
