Satellite Systems Engineer (Payload & Spacecraft)

Compensation: $85k – $160k • 0.0% – 5.0%

## About Player One Space Player One Space (P1S) is a **Canadian space technology company** headquartered in **Vancouver, BC**, building at the intersection of **Space, AI, and Data**. Our mission is to **commercialize space** and build a **global category leader out of Canada** — starting from Canada's regulatory, Arctic, and Five-Eyes advantages, and scaling worldwide. We have **closed our seed round**, are **backed by top-tier funds**, and have assembled a network of **world-class advisors, mentors, and operators** from across the space, defense, and data industries. Our team has shipped real spacecraft hardware (Khrunichev, Proton/Angara), built and operated LEO constellations inside Amazon's Project Kuiper, and led large-scale AI/data platforms at Amazon, Microsoft, and Fortune 500s. We are now putting our **first satellites on orbit** — and we need a hands-on systems engineer who can **build the spacecraft and the payload** end-to-end. --- ## The Role We are looking for a **Satellite Systems Engineer** who can **design, build, integrate, and fly** our first satellites — including the **payload** that defines our product. You will own the **full spacecraft engineering lifecycle**: bus selection and integration, **payload design and build**, subsystem trade studies, vendor reviews, environmental and functional testing, the launch campaign, and on-orbit commissioning. You will work directly with the CEO and CTO, lead the technical interface with our bus and component vendors, and be hands-on across mechanical, electrical, RF, thermal, ADCS, power, and communications subsystems. This is a **founding engineering seat** — small team, real spacecraft, fast cadence, and meaningful early-employee equity. You will see your work fly within your first 12 to 18 months. --- ## What You'll Own - **Satellite system design** — lead bus and component selection, subsystem trade studies, and end-to-end satellite architecture for **6U** and **picosat-class** spacecraft. - **Payload engineering** — **design and build the payload** that defines our product (communications / IoT / PNT / data). Own the payload architecture, electronics, RF front-end, antenna integration, firmware, and payload-to-bus interfaces. - **Subsystem ownership** — ADCS, power, thermal, structures, and comms. Run the budgets (mass, power, link, data) and keep them honest through the design cycle. - **Payload integration** — integrate the payload with the satellite bus; own mechanical, electrical, thermal, and software interfaces. - **Vendor management** — lead technical reviews with bus, component, and launch vendors. Read every datasheet. Push back when needed. - **Test & verification** — plan and execute environmental testing (vibration, thermal vacuum, EMC), functional testing, and pre-ship reviews. - **Launch campaign** — own the integration and launch campaign with our rideshare provider (SpaceX Transporter / Bandwagon via Exolaunch or equivalent). - **On-orbit operations** — lead Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP), commissioning, and steady-state operations alongside the ground segment team. - **Documentation & reviews** — system requirements, ICDs, PDR/CDR-style reviews, and the engineering record of the program. --- ## Who You Are ### Required - **3+ years of hands-on spacecraft engineering experience.** CubeSats, smallsats, or larger — you have personally been part of a program that put hardware on orbit. - **You have built a payload.** You have personally designed, built, or integrated a satellite payload — communications, sensing, or scientific. You know how to take a payload from schematic to flight hardware. - **Systems engineering depth.** You think in interfaces, margins, and failure modes. You can run a mass, power, link, and data budget and keep them aligned through the design cycle. - **Subsystem fluency.** Working knowledge of ADCS, power (solar / battery / EPS), thermal, structures, and communications subsystems. You don't need to be an expert in all, but you can hold your own in a review for any. - **RF and link budget literacy.** You can size a satellite-to-ground link, reason about modulation, coding, and antenna gain, and read an RF datasheet without flinching. - **Electronics & embedded.** You can read a schematic, lay out a board (or work closely with someone who does), bring up hardware, and write or debug firmware on an MCU or SoC. - **Integration & test experience.** You have personally been in the clean room or test facility for spacecraft integration, environmental testing, and pre-ship reviews. - **Vendor management.** You have led technical conversations with commercial bus, component, or launch vendors and held them to schedule and spec. - **Hands-on builder.** You can wire a harness, run a sim, debug a serial bus, and write a clean test procedure. You do not need a team of ten to make progress. - **Bachelor's or Master's degree** in Aerospace, Electrical, Mechanical, Systems, or related engineering discipline — or equivalent shipping experience. ### Strongly Preferred - Experience with commercial CubeSat bus vendors (6U and sub-6U platforms) and CubeSat deployers. - Experience with **SDR-based payloads** (USRP, ADALM-Pluto, custom FPGA RF) and protocol stack development. - Experience with AWS Ground Station, KSAT, Atlas Space, or other commercial ground networks. - Experience with mission ops software, telemetry pipelines, or flight software development. - Experience with **spectrum coordination** (ISED, FCC, or ITU) and orbital debris assessment. - Familiarity with **satellite IoT, satellite communications, navigation / PNT, or Earth observation** systems. - Prior **startup or small-team experience** — comfort owning ambiguous scope. ### What We're Not Looking For - Engineers who have only worked on paper studies or simulations with no flight hardware experience. - Specialists who are unwilling to work across subsystems or touch a payload. - People who need a large team and a slow cadence to do their best work. --- ## What You Get - **Competitive cash salary** — benchmarked to Canadian seed-stage space engineering market. - **Meaningful early-employee equity** — you will be one of the first engineers on the cap table. - **Real spacecraft on orbit, fast** — you will see your work fly within your first 12 to 18 months. - **Funded company** — seed round closed; you walk into a real budget and real customer pipeline. - **Top-tier advisors and mentors** — direct access to operators who have built billion-dollar space, defense, and data companies. - **Range and ownership** — in a small team, you will touch every subsystem and every phase of the program, including the payload that defines our product. --- ## Location - **Vancouver, BC (preferred)** — this is where the company is built and where integration happens. - Open to **hybrid** for the right person, with regular on-site presence in Vancouver. - Must be eligible to work in Canada (citizen, PR, or eligible for fast-track immigration — we will support relocation for the right person).