Senior Mission Concept Engineer

Senior Mission Concept Engineer

Open Cosmos

Barcelona, Spain

What will you be doing?

As a Senior Mission Concept Engineer, you’ll take the lead in defining and developing advanced space mission concepts - from initial idea through to detailed proposal - for customers around the world. You’ll guide the design of complex missions across Earth observation, telecommunications, and technology demonstration, bringing together every element of the space, ground, and launch segments into a coherent vision.

Drawing on your expertise in areas such as embedded systems, onboard software, or satellite operations, you’ll help shape the technical strategy that underpins each mission concept.

Working closely with colleagues across engineering, project management, and commercial teams, you’ll coordinate the development of compelling and technically robust proposals. You’ll engage directly with customers and partners to translate their ambitions into feasible mission architectures and delivery plans, balancing creativity with practicality.

Alongside this, you’ll play a key role in driving innovation within the team - developing new tools, models, and approaches to evaluate mission performance, risk, cost, and schedule.

As a senior member of the group, you’ll also share your knowledge and experience with others, mentoring junior engineers and contributing to the continual evolution of Open Cosmos’ mission design frameworks and long-term roadmap.

What You’ll bring

• Deep understanding of space mission design – hands-on experience defining and analysing complex missions (e.g. constellation sizing, orbital analysis, payload integration, communications, AOCS, or system trades).
• Specialisation in a mission domain, such as embedded software, satellite operations, mission control systems, or flight dynamics.
• Have led technical workstreams or proposals in a commercial or institutional (ESA, UKSA, EC, etc.) context.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, from performing delta-V or power budgets to evaluating mission-level trade-offs.
• Confidence dealing with ambiguity and complexity, using structured thinking to create clarity and drive progress.
• Excellent communication and storytelling skills, able to engage both technical and non-technical audiences.
• A collaborative mindset, eager to exchange knowledge and help build scalable processes as Open Cosmos continues to grow.