Principal Flight Software 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 Mechanical Engineer, to lead the Mechanical Engineering discipline for Nyx Earth, ensuring that mechanical systems are robust, justified, verified, and ready for flight. As a Principal you will manage a team of Mechanical Engineers, drive structural design and verification activities, and ensure technical excellence across structural analysis, testing, qualification, and verification. You will coordinate your work with the Principal CAD Engineer and with the Vehicle Mechanical Architect, under the guidance of the Mechanical Design Lead. You will play a key role in enabling the successful development of one of Europe's most ambitious space vehicles. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES * Lead the Mechanical Engineering team, defining priorities, supporting growth, and ensuring engineering excellence and delivery. * Support and collaborate to the mechanical design of the spacecraft and its major assemblies, ensuring structurally efficient, robust, manufacturable, and verifiable design solutions throughout the development lifecycle. * Provide technical leadership on the design of primary and secondary structures, large assemblies, equipment supports, and critical mechanical interfaces, ensuring consistency between design intent, structural justification, and verification strategy. * Own structural justification activities across the spacecraft, ensuring consistency of assumptions, margins, analyses, and engineering evidence. * Coordinate structural analyses and mechanical verification activities, with focus on test strategy and execution, from test definition and prediction to result interpretation and model correlation, ensuring results are coherent, traceable, and aligned with programme objectives. * Ensure verification evidence generated through testing and analysis is robust, review-ready, and suitable for qualification and certification activities towards space agencies. * Drive technical reviews, risk identification, and engineering maturity assessments to ensure readiness for major programme milestones. * Act as a hands-on technical leader, actively contributing to engineering decisions, test campaigns, anomaly investigations, and troubleshooting efforts. WHAT WE WOULD LOVE TO SEE FROM YOU Qualifications: * Degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field. * More than 10 years experience in spacecraft, launch vehicle, aerospace, defence, or other high-performance engineering environments. * Strong background in structure design, structural analysis, justification, qualification, and verification. * Proven experience leading engineering teams and developing technical talent. * Demonstrated experience supporting complex structural test campaigns, from preparation and prediction through execution and data interpretation. * Experience with qualification, certification, and engineering review processes. * Profound knowledge of space industry standards and methodologies. * Fluent in English. German, French, or Italian are an asset. Skills and Behaviors: * Ability to translate complex engineering challenges into clear decisions and actionable plans. * Strong leadership and mentoring skills within engineering teams. * Excellent collaboration across multidisciplinary teams and external partners. * Strong analytical mindset and engineering judgement. * Clear and effective communication with technical and programme stakeholders. * Strong problem-solving skills and attention to detail. * Strong organisation and prioritisation capabilities. * Positive and pragmatic attitude to get the job done. * Demonstrates behaviors consistent with The Exploration Company’s core values of Vision, Mission, Competence, Integrity and Team Spirit. 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.

Principal data architects at Thoughtworks play a key part in developing modern data architecture approaches to meet business objectives and provide end-to-end data solutions.  They are responsible for enabling clients and Thoughtworks teams to align on outcomes that support the vision painted by data strategists. They lead the design and architecture of the initiatives which are key to delivery of solutions to budget and timelines. They also guide and mentor delivery teams on  architectural decisions to deliver to the solution agreements. JOB RESPONSIBILITIES * You will collaborate with sales and pre-sales to clarify requirements and design viable solutions  and drive pursuits with technical stakeholders. * You will lead complex data programs, navigating architectural concerns and enabling delivery teams to deliver on accepted standards within time and budget. * You will provide client-facing technical leadership and guidance on topics related to data architecture, engineering, and analytics to advise clients on bringing their data strategy to life. * You will interact with client counterparts from the enterprise architecture group and lead the delivery, alignment and sign-off of key architectural decisions, trade-offs and ways of working. * You will communicate both high- and low-level technical details of data architecture to engineers and business stakeholders. * You will be able to collaborate, influence and guide at the intersection of analytical and operational architecture. * You will be responsible for the technical design of data governance, data security and data privacy to fulfill compliance requirements. * You will seamlessly incorporate data quality frameworks and processes to address and fulfill requirements as set out in strategy and acceptance criteria. * You will represent Thoughtworks in various online and offline forums, including events and conferences. JOB QUALIFICATIONS TECHNICAL SKILLS * You have experience in defining and implementing different types of data architecture, analyzing trade-offs and can define technology stacks for different types of data architecture. * You have experience in designing application system architecture based on big data, artificial intelligence and related technologies. * You have rich experience in building, maintaining and tuning data platforms, as well extensive experience in data warehouse design, data modeling, data monitoring and operations. * You have experience with common design patterns, application frameworks and foundational/theoretical knowledge (i.e.: distributed systems, data intensive applications, etc.). * You are passionate about data infrastructure and operations, with expertise working in cloud environments. * You are proficient in common open-source distributed computing/storage technologies, including but not limited to YARN, Impala, Spark, MapReduce, Kafka and Flink, with practical project architecture experience. * You have experience in defining, developing and enabling data-driven techniques, advanced analytics, ML/AI and data mining applications in enterprise. * You have experience in developing real-time and low-latency data streaming solutions and a differentiated view on the complexities and tradeoffs connected with them. * You have experience in productionizing machine learning models and applying techniques, tools and processes. PROFESSIONAL SKILLS * You must have extensive pre-sales experience and a proven ability to independently drive complex pursuits and create winning commercial proposals. * You understand the importance of stakeholder management and can easily liaise between clients and other key stakeholders throughout projects, ensuring buy-in and gaining trust along the way. * You are a native-level German speaker (C1 German) that is comfortable and experienced to drive consensus with mostly technical stakeholders. * You are resilient in ambiguous situations and can adapt your role to approach challenges from multiple perspectives. * You have a good understanding of business and communication, collaboration skills, strong learning and summarizing abilities. * You don’t shy away from risks or conflicts, instead you take them on and skillfully manage them. * You coach, mentor and motivate others and you aspire to influence teammates to take positive action and accountability for their work. * You enjoy influencing others and always advocate for technical excellence while being open to change when needed. * Cultivating strong partnerships comes naturally to you; You understand the importance of relationship building and how it can bring new opportunities to our business. OTHER THINGS TO KNOW LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT There is no one-size-fits-all career path at Thoughtworks: however you want to develop your career is entirely up to you. But we also balance autonomy with the strength of our cultivation culture. This means your career is supported by interactive tools, numerous development programs and teammates who want to help you grow. We see value in helping each other be our best and that extends to empowering our employees in their career journeys. RESPONSIBLE USE OF AI IN RECRUITMENT At Thoughtworks, we use AI tools to support our recruitment team with administrative tasks such as drafting communications, scheduling interviews and writing job descriptions. Crucially, our AI tools do not screen, assess, rank or make hiring decisions. Every application is reviewed by our team and all selection decisions are made exclusively by our interviewers and hiring managers. We are committed to fairness and responsible AI. We actively manage our AI systems by testing, monitoring for biased outcomes and implementing mitigation measures. We hold our third-party vendors to these same high standards through a rigorous governance process. For additional information, please see our full Thoughtworks AI Policy for Recruitment. ABOUT THOUGHTWORKS Thoughtworks is a dynamic and inclusive community of bright and supportive colleagues who are revolutionizing tech. As a leading technology consultancy, we’re pushing boundaries through our purposeful and impactful work. For 30+ years, we’ve delivered extraordinary impact together with our clients by helping them solve complex business problems with technology as the differentiator. Bring your brilliant expertise and commitment for continuous learning to Thoughtworks. Together, let’s be extraordinary. #LI-Onsite See here our AI policy.