Mission Architect - Space

About Us

At Antares, our long-term mission is to make clean energy abundant from Earth to the Asteroid Belt. We’re fueled by the belief that advanced nuclear energy can strengthen our military, solve the climate crisis, elevate global living standards, and expand humanity's presence in outer space. To achieve our mission, we’re building mass-producible, inherently safe, deployable microreactors that can be used terrestrially, underwater, and in space.

Formed in 2023, the Antares team hails from SpaceX, The White House, MIT, Rigetti Computing, The Air Force, General Atomics, Relativity Space, Ursa Major, Ultra Safe Nuclear, and Los Alamos National Laboratory. Antares has raised over $39M in venture capital from top-tier investors and has over $4M in government funding. 

About the Team

The Mission Engineering team at Antares owns real-world missions to demonstrate and deploy microreactors. This includes programs and projects associated with DoD (Department of Defense), DOE (Department of Energy) and other entities that endeavor to deploy nuclear systems. The team ensures that our products work as intended by our users across all systems and disciplines, from initial reactor design to reliability analysis and beyond. We ensure that all aspects of mission design are considered, from configuration management, customer success, reliability and reusability, and that every system is engineered to meet the demands of operating environments on Earth, underwater, and in space.

The Mission Architect - Space will play an outsized role in ushering in the era of space nuclear power.  The mission architect will start from the first principles and design spacecraft configurations and orbital parameters to create new high-power space capabilities.  You will be responsible for working with external stakeholders to determine desired mission sets and design the concept of operations and space vehicles to deliver to the desired capability.  This will include owning the entire detailed technical design of the system and will eventually involve creating the roadmap and team to deliver on building systems in partnership with bus manufacturers.

Roles & Responsibilities:

• Accountable for architecting mission solutions supporting our National Security Space, Civil and/or Commercial portfolios, overseeing customer engagement and internal coordination.

• Collaboratively lead interdisciplinary teams through advanced, complex technical projects for the design, development, integration, and testing of customer solutions, including developing concepts of operation, mission requirements, and system architectures. 

• Work directly with Antares engineering teams to define system performance requirements, integrate technical parameters, and assure compatibility of all physical, functional, and programmatic interfaces.

• Lead internal technical projects and end-to-end engineering activities to meet the company’s strategic growth objectives. 

• Provides guidance for the team to assess and provide direction for make/buy decisions and selection of strategic suppliers. 

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in engineering, physics, or related field. Equivalent additional years of experience may be substituted for an advanced degree (e.g. 2 years Masters)

• 5+ years of experience in mission analysis, space operations, or orbital mechanics.

• Experience in simulation tools and programming languages (e.g., MATLAB, Python, C++).

• Hands-on experience with mission analysis tools such as STK, FreeFlyer, GMAT, or similar software.

Preferred Skills & Experience:

• 10+ years of relevant experience

• Demonstrated experience in the technical leadership of space mission programs

• Demonstrated proficiency in the development of system/mission requirements as well as requirement flow down processes

• Experience in the development of system/mission budgets (mass, power, RF, propulsion, pointing, etc.)

• Strong understanding of orbital mechanics, spacecraft dynamics, and autonomous space operations.

• Experience with mission planning and real-time mission support.

• Systems engineering lifecycle experience and understanding

• Strong background in the satellite/ground/mission development lifecycle covering conceptualization, design, development, integration, test, launch, and operations

• Ability to accommodate some travel to customer centers, workshops, conferences, and business partners to support business activities and relationships

• Demonstrated technical acumen and industry knowledge

• Demonstrated presentation and communications abilities, internally and externally facing

• Active TS/SCI clearance

• Understanding of business development processes and an aptitude for matching company capabilities with customer needs

• Ability to work independently

• Previous experience working with or leading bids to U.S. Government customers is especially desirable

• Prior experience in working directly with and formulating solutions for customers

• Demonstrated strong teamwork and interpersonal skills

Additional Requirements:

• Must be willing and able to obtain U.S. Government security clearance at TS/SCI level

• Ability to work nights and weekends as required to meet ambitious goals and deadlines

Culture

At Antares, we like to specifically tie each role to our founding document’s set of values–here are the top five cultural values we think you should believe at your core to be successful:

• Think in Systems - Energy and Defense are complex ecosystems with numerous stakeholders with competing priorities, conflicting policies, perverse incentives, and emergent and path-dependent properties. First principles thinking alone is insufficient. Think probabilistically and then take action. “If you want to be certain, then you are apt to be obsolete.” Over-optimizing the components often degrades the system. 

• Obsess over the End User - The customer and end user are often not the same. We will never build globally competitive commercial products if we lose sight of our end users and their entire interaction with the product life cycle 

• Be Unconstrained by Convention - Our only limits are the laws of physics. Many, even experts, will say what we are working on is impossible. They said the same about SpaceX reusing rockets. Generationally impactful companies, by definition, must accomplish the seemingly impossible. If it were easy, it would have already been done. Never shy away from a solution because it has never been tried before, and never choose to do something because that's “how it's always been done.” 

• Craftsmen - We also focus on the inputs. We aspire to high-quality engineering for its own sake. As such, we invest in personal growth, learning, and developing a long-term career path for exceptional individual contributors. We embrace a beginner’s mindset, share knowledge, and never condescend the curious. 

• Loyally Collaborative - Team > Self. We win together. There is nothing more precious than a high-performing team. 

ITAR Requirements

To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.