Principal Mission Operations Training 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. Team Leadership & Engineering Management * Lead, mentor, and grow a team of engineers spanning thermal, structural/mechanical, CFD and CAD/design functions, fostering a culture of technical excellence and accountability. * Define individual scopes of work, set priorities, and manage workload across concurrent design activities to keep the team aligned with program milestones. * Conduct regular design reviews and one-on-ones, providing clear technical direction and supporting career development within the office. Propulsion System Design & Technical Ownership * Making or approving key design decisions on feed or pressure systems, and associated structures. * Drive design-to-requirements traceability, ensuring system satisfy mass, thermal, and safety margins up to qualification. * Coordinate with Systems Engineering and Vehicle Design to manage interfaces between the propulsion system and adjacent vehicle subsystems. Thermal Analysis & Management * Oversee steady-state and transient thermal analyses of propulsion components, ensuring compliance with temperature limits across all mission phases (ground operations, in-orbit, re-entry). * Review and approve thermal models, ensuring analytical rigor and correlation with test data. * Guide the team in identifying test platforms and defining test objectives. Structural & Mechanical Design * Direct the mechanical design of propulsion structures, and brackets, ensuring adequate strength, stiffness, and fatigue life under load cases. * Oversee FEA and hand-analysis efforts to verify structural margins, and lead disposition of any margin concerns or design anomalies. * Working closely with AIT team to define and validate integration sequences. CAD, Documentation & Configuration Control * Define and enforce CAD standards, model maturity gates, and drawing release processes within the design office, ensuring consistency and traceability across the propulsion product tree. * Oversee the maintenance of the engineering master model and associated bill of materials (BOM), coordinating with PDM/PLM administrators to keep configuration control current. * Ensure design documentation — including ICDs, engineering drawings, design notes, and specification trees — is complete, reviewed, and baselined on schedule. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES LOCATION You will perform your duties principally at the Company's premises in Bordeaux and may be required to travel from time to time to our company’s premises in Munich in the course of your duties. WHAT WE WOULD LOVE TO SEE FROM YOU * 5+ years of hands-on experience in propulsion system design for launch vehicles, spacecraft, or space capsules, with direct exposure to liquid propulsion architectures. * Demonstrated ability to work across thermal, structural, and mechanical domains — you don't need to be the deepest expert in every field, but you can lead and critically review work across all three. * A track record of managing small-to-mid-size engineering teams in a fast-paced, hardware-delivery environment, with the ability to develop junior engineers while maintaining technical standards. * Prior experience running or closely supervising thermal (e.g. Thermal Desktop, ANSYS or equivalent) and structural analyses (e.g. NASTRAN or equivalent), and strong familiarity with CAD environments (CATIA, NX, or equivalent). * Experience managing complex system-level trades and interfaces and formal design review processes Skills and Behaviors: * A hands-on approach to problem-solving, combined with a collaborative mindset to work across multidisciplinary teams * Excellent organizational skills and ability to multitask * Capability of working autonomously whilst collaborating productively with remote teams * Positive and flexible attitude in a constantly evolving environment * Grit to get the job done * Ability to communicate effectively with a wide variety of audiences * Behaviors consistent with The Exploration Company’s core values of Commitment, Innovation, Trust, Quality, and Teamwork 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.    The Exploration Company is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability status. Relocation assistance is provided for those willing to relocate including visa sponsorship where applicable.   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.

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're looking for a hands-on Principal Engineer to lead the technical direction of our Test Bench Control System software platform. You will combine deep software engineering expertise with architectural ownership and product-level thinking to ensure our platform reliably supports integrated engine hot-fire testing — with an architecture that can extend to broader test and ground operations as the program matures. You will own the software platform that sits between test engineers and the real-time control layer: enabling operators to author, review, and deploy test sequences and configurable safety parameters onto PLC hardware — while providing the live data visualization, command interfaces, and traceability infrastructure that test campaigns depend on. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES In your capacity as a Principal Engineer, Test Systems Software you will: * Define and evolve the platform architecture spanning test sequence authoring, PLC configuration deployment, real-time data acquisition, and operator interfaces * Write production-grade code across the full stack while owning the technical roadmap and driving major architectural decisions * Translate test requirements and operational needs into feature specifications, managing scope and delivering incrementally toward operational capability * Build high-throughput data pipelines for real-time ingestion, processing, and visualization of high-rate sensor data * Design the full lifecycle for both operational sequences and configurable safety parameters * Define data acquisition standards including device configuration management and calibration traceability * Architect for high reliability, observability, and operational robustness in environments where software faults carry significant hardware and safety consequences * Collaborate with Test Bench Engineers, Propulsion, and Systems Engineering to align software capabilities with campaign requirements * Lead a multidisciplinary team of five — setting engineering standards, guiding code reviews and design reviews, and balancing development velocity with the rigorous quality bar required for safety-critical infrastructure WHAT WE WOULD LOVE TO SEE FROM YOU The ideal candidate will have: * 5+ years of professional software engineering experience with demonstrated architectural ownership and technical leadership * Strong backend expertise (e.g., Python, C#, or similar) with experience in real-time or near-real-time data processing pipelines * Experience with modern frontend technologies (TypeScript, Vue/React, WebSockets) for operator interfaces and live data dashboards * Experience with containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes) for deploying and operating distributed service architectures * Deep understanding of distributed systems, API design, and inter-process communication in low-latency environments * Experience designing software systems that integrate with PLCs or similar real-time controllers — understanding the boundaries between deterministic control and higher-level application logic * Familiarity with test bench infrastructure — instrumentation systems, sensor networks, command/response workflows, and procedural automation * Strong grasp of safety-critical software design: deterministic execution, fail-safe defaults, configuration validation, and safe deployment practices in systems where errors carry hardware consequences * Product ownership mindset with strong analytical thinking, technical judgment, and attention to detail * Motivation to thrive in a fast-paced, mission-driven environment with high accountability for system readiness Bonus qualifications: * Experience in aerospace, defense, or other safety-critical domains — particularly propulsion test operations or environmental test systems * Familiarity with Beckhoff TwinCAT or IEC 61131-3 programming * Knowledge of data acquisition hardware and software ecosystems (e.g., Beckhoff, Siemens, Measurement Computing) * Experience with hardware interface protocols and device communication (e.g., serial, CAN, Ethernet-based industrial protocols) 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.    The Exploration Company is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability status. Relocation assistance is provided for those willing to relocate including visa sponsorship where applicable.   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.