(Junior) Proposal Engineer

(Junior) Proposal Engineer

Isar Aerospace

Ottobrunn, Germany

Mission Brief

As a Proposal Engineer, you will be responsible for developing technically robust and commercially competitive proposals for commercial and institutional launch service programs.

Working within the Mission Engineering team and in close coordination with the Commercial team, you will lead and support launch service bid activities, ensuring proposals accurately reflect system capabilities, constraints, and the development roadmap. Your work will include technical analyses, structured proposal documentation, and direct participation in customer‑facing technical exchanges.

This role provides direct exposure to both the technical and commercial aspects of launch service proposals, with a strong emphasis on structured engineering thinking, technical credibility, and clear communication.

Your Role in Our Space Mission

In this role, you will:

• Develop customer‑facing technical proposal content, including mission concepts, system descriptions, trade‑offs, and compliance matrices.
• Analyse customer, institutional, and program‑level requirements and translate them into clear, concise, and traceable technical responses, including documented assumptions, constraints, and exclusions.
• Coordinate with Mission Engineering and relevant subject‑matter experts to generate technically credible and internally aligned proposal inputs.
• Translate complex technical concepts into clear, structured proposal material suitable for both customers and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Contribute to bid/no‑bid decisions by assessing technical feasibility, compliance status, schedule drivers, and key technical risks.
• Act as a technical point of contact for customer technical exchanges, clarification calls, and written Q&A activities throughout the bid phase.
• Define and refine technical Statements of Work (SoWs) and associated deliverables, and support technical clarification activities during early contract development.
• Translate customer and contractual requirements into well‑defined inputs for internal development and engineering teams during proposal and contract handover phases.
• Contribute, where appropriate, to mission engineering analysis or development activities that strengthen proposal assumptions, reference missions, and overall technical credibility.
• Consolidate customer feedback and market inputs to support the evolution of future launch service offerings.
• Participate in customer meetings alongside commercial leads, building confidence through technically sound contributions and consistent technical messaging.

Qualification Checklist

• Degree in Aerospace Engineering, Systems Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
• 3–5 years of experience in one or more of the following areas: spacecraft or launch vehicle design, systems engineering, technical sales, or similar technical roles.
• Strong written and oral communication skills for technical topics, including customer-facing documentation and proposals. Ability to communicate technical topics clearly in both written and oral form.
• Strong written communication skills for structured, customer‑facing technical documentation and proposals.
• Prior exposure to customer‑facing engineering documentation, technical proposals, or feasibility studies.
• Familiarity with ESA or other institutional space programs, including associated processes and documentation styles.
• Ability to analyse technical and programmatic requirements and support the development of structured, traceable technical responses.
• Solid understanding of space missions, spacecraft systems, or launch vehicle capabilities.
• Experience with CAD design and/or mission analysis for spacecraft.
• Fluent written and spoken English.

Bonus Skills

• Additional languages: Italian and/or Spanish.