Chief Technology Officer

Requirements:

• 10+ years of spacecraft systems engineering and mission development experience, including leading multidisciplinary teams
• End-to-end experience taking missions from formulation through launch and on-orbit operations
• Recent delivery experience on U.S. government space programs, including classified work, with direct accountability to customers for cost, schedule, and performance
• Experience leading program managers and engineering leads across concurrent programs
• Experience with optical payloads, precision pointing and tracking, or attitude determination and control systems (ADCS)
• Experience selecting and managing spacecraft, payload, or subsystem suppliers
• A record of hiring technical talent and building teams
• Ability to work in a FOCI-mitigated environment with a foreign parent company
• Active TS/SCI clearance or ability to obtain it on a near-term timeline
• Degree in aerospace, electrical or mechanical engineering, physics, or a similar field
• Preferred: recent DoD or national security space leadership, particularly flight demonstrations or rapid prototyping
• Preferred: experience with both LEO and lunar missions
• Preferred: experience procuring a third-party spacecraft bus and managing payload integration
• Preferred: leadership at an early-stage space company or experience building laboratories and integration and test facilities

Responsibilities:

• Own the U.S. technical architecture and lead engineering, from mission architecture and requirements through supplier oversight, integration, and testing
• Lead U.S. program managers across concurrent Earth-orbit and lunar flight demonstrations, civil technology development, and a commercial orbital demonstration
• Lead the Colorado site, drive key engineering hires, and select and develop a Denver facility with optical testing and payload integration capabilities
• Represent the technical architecture to government customers, partners, and the board
• Stay hands-on in design reviews, critical trade studies, and anomaly resolution

Technologies:

• Support
• Security

More

We are a space technology company developing advanced optical payloads, including laser and precision pointing, acquisition, and tracking systems for spacecraft in Earth orbit and on the lunar surface. Following a major government contract award, our U.S. business is scaling rapidly. Our lead defense program has received a national priority rating, with a flight demonstration planned within 18–24 months and a path toward a sole-source production contract; a lunar demonstration is targeted on a similar timeline. This executive-team role reports to the president of the U.S. entity and is based on-site in Denver, Colorado. We operate as a standalone U.S. entity in a FOCI-mitigated environment. The position is an immediate hire and offers a $225,000–$260,000 salary, equity, a 401(k) match, and full benefits. This is a build-phase opportunity with a broad remit and fewer support structures than a large prime; equity is a meaningful part of the potential upside, while base salary may be below prime-contractor levels. Candidates from large primes are welcome if they enjoy building in a fluid, generalist environment.

last updated 44 week of 2026