ABOUT FIREFLY AEROSPACE

As an end-to-end responsive space company, Firefly Aerospace is on a mission to enable our world to launch, land, and operate in space – anywhere, anytime. Our small- to medium-lift launch vehicles, lunar landers, and orbital vehicles allow us to service the entire lifecycle of government and commercial missions from low Earth orbit to the Moon and beyond. We utilize carbon composite structures, patented propulsion technologies, and common components across our vehicles to iterate quickly, improve reliability, and deliver payloads at a lower cost.

Summary

Join the team that just landed on the Moon. Firefly Aerospace is seeking a Mission Operations Engineer to join the team behind the successful lunar landing of Blue Ghost Mission 1. As part of our Flight Operations team, you will contribute to the planning, testing, and execution of real-time spacecraft operations for both the Blue Ghost Lunar Lander and Elytra, our expanding fleet of on-orbit vehicles.

This role is central to mission success spanning ground system integration and day-in-the-life spacecraft sims to live console operations during critical flight phases. You will help define how we fly, working across engineering teams to develop robust, fault-tolerant operations plans that scale from low Earth orbit to the lunar surface and beyond. As Elytra enters service and Blue Ghost prepares for future missions, you’ll play a direct role in shaping the future of Firefly’s flight operations.

If you're driven by technical excellence, mission ownership, and the opportunity to operate spacecraft that are rewriting what’s possible, we want to hear from you.

Responsibilities:

• Design and test ground system architectures for mission ops execution
• Develop mission operations plans across all subsystems and ground assets
• Create and validate on-console procedures, processes, and scripts for nominal and contingency scenarios
• Build and support mission simulation campaigns that mirror in-space timelines and events
• Lead or support execution of flight operations from console, during prelaunch, transit, and landing
• Participate in end-to-end mission testing: Ground Readiness Tests, Scenario Testing, Day-in-the-Life, Simulations
• Apply systems engineering approaches to ensure traceability of mission objectives to operational readiness

Basic Qualifications:

• BS in Engineering or related field with 5+ years of experience
• Experience in real-time spacecraft operations (LEO, GEO, lunar preferred)
• Demonstrated mission planning and execution across flight and ground assets
• Familiarity with ground system architectures and spacecraft comms
• Experience across key subsystems: T&C, C&DH, GN&C, EPS
• Proficient in flight/ground software tools: T&C systems, planning tools, Flight dynamics, etc.
• Cross-functional collaboration with engineering and mission teams

Preferred Qualifications:

• 8+ years of professional experience in ground system design, development, verification, deployment, and validation
• Experience with lunar or interplanetary operations
• Deep understanding of spacecraft integration and “test like you fly” principles
• Lead roles in mission testing campaigns (Ground Readiness testing, Flight Readiness, Ground Service Provider Testing, etc.)
• Familiarity with tools like Jira, Confluence, scripting (Python/bash), and automation frameworks
• Active U.S. Government security clearance (Secret, TS, or TS/SCI)
• Experience supporting secure flight or mission operations (e.g., DoD, NRO, NASA classified missions)
• Experience in operations involving cross-domain solutions (CDS) and managing workflows across classified/unclassified boundary systems

Firefly offers outstanding benefits for our employees, including generous health, dental and vision plans with low plan deductibles, parental leave, educational reimbursement, short term disability, and flexible PTO options.

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Firefly Aerospace, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Firefly is governed based on merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.