Systems Engineering Manager
ICEYE US· Defense & Space· Oct 22, 2026 · 6d ago
Irvine / Herndon
In office
Full-time
Manager
$200K–$240K
7+ years exp
Job description
Third-party recruiters: Please do not contact us about this role.
Systems Engineering Manager
At ICEYE, we design, build and operate the largest fleet of Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites in the world. Using advanced technology, our constellation collects topographical data about any location on Earth, day or night, through any weather conditions.
Headquartered in Southern California, our customers are society’s heroes – intelligence professionals, warfighters, first responders, and scientific researchers. As a trusted mission partner, the United States and its allies depend on us for critical information when it matters most.
Position Overview
ICEYE US is seeking an experienced Systems Engineering Manager to lead system-level design, requirements development, technical performance management, and verification and validation (V&V) across our space-based intelligence systems and programs.
Reporting directly to the senior executive in charge of Engineering, this position is responsible for establishing and maintaining cohesive system architectures, defining and managing Level 1 (L1) system requirements, and ensuring integrated systems meet their technical requirements and intended mission objectives.
The Systems Engineering Manager will serve as a cross-functional technical authority, working closely with Space Systems, Software Engineering, SAR Engineering, Assembly, Integration & Test (AIT), and Operations to ensure successful integration of complex hardware, software, and operational capabilities throughout the system lifecycle.
This role requires a hands-on technical leader who can balance engineering rigor with rapid execution, establish scalable systems engineering practices, and lead system-level technical activities across multiple concurrent programs.
Key Responsibilities
- Team Leadership: Build, lead, and mentor a high-performing systems engineering team, establishing clear technical ownership, engineering discipline, and accountability across multiple concurrent programs.
- System Architecture & Design: Own the development and maintenance of system-level architectures, functional allocations, designs, and technical baselines, ensuring all system elements integrate into a cohesive solution that satisfies mission objectives and customer needs.
- Mission Analysis & CONOPS: Lead the development of mission concepts, concepts of operations (CONOPS), operational scenarios, and mission-level trade studies to establish system capabilities, operational approaches, and technical feasibility.
- System Requirements: Lead the development, management, and configuration control of L1 system requirements, ensuring requirements are clear, measurable, verifiable, and traceable to customer and mission objectives.
- Requirements Allocation & Traceability: Allocate system requirements to responsible engineering disciplines and maintain bidirectional traceability between customer needs, system requirements, subsystem requirements, and verification evidence.
- Technical Performance Management: Own integrated system-level technical budgets, performance measures, and margins, including applicable mass, power, thermal, communications, pointing, data, and mission performance allocations. Monitor technical performance measures (TPMs) and key performance parameters (KPPs) throughout development.
- System Modeling & Simulation: Lead integrated system-level modeling, simulation, and engineering analyses to evaluate architecture alternatives, predict system performance, validate technical assumptions, and support design decisions.
- System-Level Verification & Validation: Own system-level V&V strategy, planning, execution coordination, compliance assessment, and closure, ensuring integrated systems meet approved requirements and intended operational needs.
- System Integration & Test: Establish system-level integration and test strategies, coordinate integration activities across engineering disciplines, and define technical readiness criteria for major integration and verification milestones.
- Interface Management: Establish and maintain system-level interface requirements, interface control documentation, and technical compatibility across subsystems, external partners, and customer environments.
- Technical Leadership & Reviews: Lead system-level trade studies, technical assessments, and engineering reviews, including SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, and applicable system acceptance and readiness reviews.
- Technical Risk Management: Identify, assess, and mitigate system-level technical risks, design conflicts, requirements gaps, and performance deficiencies throughout the engineering lifecycle.
- Configuration & Change Management: Establish and maintain controlled system technical baselines, evaluate the system-level impacts of engineering changes, and ensure configuration consistency across requirements, architectures, interfaces, and verification artifacts.
- Mission Assurance & Specialty Engineering: Ensure applicable reliability, safety, maintainability, radiation, electromagnetic compatibility, and other specialty engineering considerations are incorporated into system design, technical analyses, and verification activities.
- Operational Readiness & Lifecycle Support: Support system-level readiness assessments, launch and commissioning activities, operational acceptance, and resolution of system-level anomalies or performance deficiencies throughout the operational lifecycle.
- Engineering Processes & Standards: Develop and implement scalable systems engineering processes, tools, and standards for architecture development, requirements management, technical performance, configuration control, and V&V.
- Cross-Functional Technical Authority: Serve as the system-level technical integrator across engineering organizations, resolving cross-disciplinary technical challenges and providing independent assessments of system maturity, compliance, and readiness.
- Program & Stakeholder Collaboration: Partner with functional engineering leaders, Program Management, Product Management, customers, and external stakeholders to align system design, technical execution, and program objectives.
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Systems Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
- 7+ years of experience in systems engineering or multidisciplinary engineering, including experience with complex aerospace, defense, or mission-critical systems.
- 2+ years of engineering leadership or management experience.
- Demonstrated experience owning system-level architecture, requirements development, technical performance management, and verification and validation.
- Strong understanding of systems engineering principles, requirements decomposition, functional allocation, interface management, and technical baseline control.
- Experience developing and managing integrated system-level technical budgets, performance measures, and engineering margins.
- Experience with mission analysis, concepts of operations, system-level trade studies, and multidisciplinary engineering analyses.
- Experience developing and executing system-level verification plans, requirements traceability matrices, and compliance assessments.
- Demonstrated experience leading technical reviews, system-level trade studies, and multidisciplinary engineering activities.
- Experience with system integration involving hardware, software, and operational systems.
- Working knowledge of configuration management, technical risk management, reliability, and mission assurance principles.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with the ability to resolve complex cross-functional technical challenges.
- Excellent communication and leadership skills, with the ability to influence technical decisions across engineering organizations.
- Demonstrated ability to manage multiple concurrent technical priorities in a fast-paced development environment.
Desired Qualifications
- Master’s degree in Systems Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
- Experience developing spacecraft, satellite payloads, ground systems, or integrated space mission architectures.
- Experience with synthetic aperture radar (SAR), remote sensing, satellite communications, or intelligence systems.
- Familiarity with Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE), SysML, and digital engineering methodologies.
- Experience with requirements management tools such as DOORS, Jama, or equivalent platforms.
- Experience with system modeling and simulation tools such as MATLAB, Simulink, STK, or equivalent platforms.
- Familiarity with NASA, DoD, INCOSE, or aerospace industry systems engineering standards and practices.
- Experience supporting U.S. government, defense, or intelligence community programs.
- Experience with spacecraft integration, qualification, acceptance testing, launch readiness, and commissioning.
- Familiarity with reliability engineering, failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA), fault tree analysis, and mission assurance practices.
- Experience with spacecraft technical budgets, including mass, power, thermal, communications link, pointing, and data budgets.
- Experience establishing or scaling systems engineering capabilities within a growing engineering organization.
- Familiarity with Agile development environments and tailoring systems engineering practices to iterative hardware and software development.
Pay Range and Compensation Package
· The estimated base salary range for this role is $200k - $240k depending on experience
· Other benefits include health coverage, flexible PTO, a friendly work environment, plus extra fun perks!
Physical Requirements
This position primarily works in an office environment. It requires the ability to sit or stand for long periods of time and frequent walking. Daily use of a computer, phone, office equipment and other computing and digital devices is required. Some travel may be necessary – the ability to travel by car, plane, train, bus, vessel, or metro, operate a motor vehicle and maintain a valid Driver’s License and/or effectively navigate public transportation is required.
While performing the responsibilities of the job, the employee must be able to read and respond to inter-office communications as well as effectively participate in meetings. The employee is often required to sit and use their hands or fingers, to lift up to 50 lbs., pull, push, carry, handle, or feel. The employee is required to carry, handle items, reach with arms and hands, to stoop, kneel, or crouch; talk, or hear. Mental demands may require prolonged concentration, reading comprehension, understanding and interpretation of concepts, ideas, and philosophies. The physical demands of the position described herein are essential functions of the job and employees must be able to successfully perform these tasks for extended periods. Reasonable accommodations may be made for those individuals with real or perceived disabilities to perform the essential functions of the job described unless such accommodations would cause ICEYE US an undue burden.
EEO Statement
ICEYE US is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, age, or any other protected characteristic under federal, state, or local law.
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