Principal Mission Assurance Engineer

Here at The Exploration Company, we are developing, producing, and operating Nyx, a modular and reusable space orbital vehicle that can eventually be refuelled in orbit and that can carry cargo - and potentially humans in the longer run.

We are looking for a Principal Mission Assurance Engineer to lead our Mission Assurance team and own the end-to-end strategy that ensures our spacecraft is safe, reliable, and mission ready. In this role you will be embedded with the design, test, and operations teams, driving the vehicle safety architecture as well as relentlessly driving risk down and availability up. In this role you will be the technical authority for mission assurance across the program and get to lead and mentor a team of ~6 mission assurance engineers.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

- End-to-end ownership of the vehicle safety architecture making sure it meets all safety & reliability requirements (both internal and external from ISS program, ESA and CNES on entry safety).

- Owner of overall flight reliability, responsible for assessing pre-flight risks and potential mitigations with vehicle design, analysis, and operations teams.

- Perform and review FMECA, FTA, PRA, and RAM analyses to identify risks and failure modes.

- Define and validate the spacecraft fault management and FDIR architecture.

- Work with avionics, software, and operations teams to implement fault management strategies and ensure safe behavior under off-nominal conditions.

- Support on-console operations as the Mission Assurance representative and drive in-flight anomaly resolution. Ensure lessons learned feed directly back into design and FDIR improvements.

- Lead and mentor a team of safety, reliability, and fault management engineers. Set priorities, review their work, and grow their technical depth.

- Champion a culture of mission assurance. Instill first-principles thinking, disciplined verification, and data-driven decision-making.

- Report to program leadership on RAMS status, residual risk, and flight readiness.

- Drive corrective actions from anomalies, test failures, and operational events back into design improvements.

WHAT WE WOULD LOVE TO SEE FROM YOU

The ideal candidate will have:

- Master’s degree in an engineering or science discipline.

- 8+ years of experience in RAMS, mission assurance, or systems safety on complex hardware systems.

- Experience leading teams or projects — setting technical direction and delivering results.

- Proficiency with reliability tools (e.g., FMECA, FTA, reliability block diagrams).

- Deep understanding of fault tolerance, redundancy management, and failure detection/isolation/recovery.

- Technical knowledge of spacecraft systems and operations (e.g., communications, orbital mechanics, avionics, propulsion, thermal control, life support systems).

- Strong written and verbal communication of technical information.

- Able to effectively manage projects and tasks while meeting aggressive deadlines.

- Thrives under pressure and is resilient in the face of technical challenges.

- Excellent organizational and interpersonal skills.

BONUS QUALIFICATIONS

- Experience developing and validating FDIR logic, watchdog strategies, and fault response sequences.

- Previous experience in a customer-facing role working through design requirements, test acceptance, and verification (especially with a government customer such as ESA/NASA).

- Ability and willingness to put in extra time to mentor other engineers while also being a significant individual contributor.

- Passion for advancing the commercial space industry and human spaceflight.

Why you should join us!

What makes us special here at The Exploration Company and why we think you will enjoy working here is:

- We’re Agile - we make decisions fast whilst keeping our goals and systems in mind

- We’re Open and Collaborative - we are transparent about risks and obstacles, so that we can cooperate to overcome them

- We have a lot of Fun - we refuel our energy knowing we are democratising space. It’s a wonderful and rare opportunity, are YOU up for the challenge?

We'd love to hear from you if you wish to be a part of our journey. Please submit your CV now for immediate consideration and we will be in touch shortly.

All offers are contingent upon the successful completion of a background check, which will be subject to the country, role, and project you applied for. By submitting your application, you acknowledge and agree that any offer of employment may be conditional upon successful condition of this check. The Exploration Company partners with Zinc Work Limited located in the UK (Zinc), a third-party provider, to ensure this process as efficient and transparent as possible.

If applicable, you will receive an email from Zinc upon acceptance of your offer with a link to a secure portal where you can provide the required information to Zinc.