Lead Space Engineer

Darwin Space are currently hiring for a Lead Space Engineer on behalf of a business in Bologna, Italy.

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Key Responsibilities

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• Lead and manage the Space Engineering team, ensuring effective coordination, task allocation, and technical alignment across all project phases;
  
• Define, manage and maintain system-level technical requirements, specifications, and ICDs, ensuring full traceability across the entire development lifecycle;
  
• Lead the end-to-end development of space robotic systems/products from engineering model (EM) to flight model (FM), overseeing design, integration, verification and qualification activities performed by the team;
  
• Oversee system engineering processes, including requirement flow-down, verification planning, and compliance with space standards (e.g. ECSS);
  
• Act as primary technical authority and interface with customers and stakeholders, managing mission requirements and ensuring alignment between external needs and internal development;
  
• Coordinate technical interactions with external partners, including platform providers, launch service providers, and component suppliers;
  
• Lead integration, testing and qualification campaigns (functional, environmental, and system-level), supervising execution and ensuring robustness and mission readiness;
  
• Drive system-level architecture, design decisions and trade-offs for robotic space applications (e.g. EOAT, ADR, IOS, IOM), leveraging inputs from the engineering team;
  
• Lead technical reviews (SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, etc.), risk assessments, and FMEA activities;
  
• Ensure the production, review and quality of all internal and external technical documentation (reports, test documentation, review data packages), coordinating inputs across disciplines, and lead technical meetings and reviews;
  
• Mentor, guide and grow the engineering team, ensuring capability development, knowledge sharing, and alignment with company technical strategy.
  

Must-have

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• Education: Master’s degree or PhD. in Robotics, Aerospace Engineering, Mechatronics Engineering, or related fields.
  
• 5-7+ years of experience in the design, development and qualification of space systems or subsystems, with exposure to full project lifecycle (Phase A-E).
  
• Strong expertise in system engineering practices, including requirement definition and flow-down, interface management (ICDs), verification & validation (V&V), and configuration control.
  
• Solid knowledge of space standards (e.g. ECSS) and experience in preparing and reviewing technical documentation for formal project reviews (SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, etc.).
  
• Proven experience in leading integration, verification and testing (AIT/AIV) activities for complex systems, including environmental and functional testing campaigns.
  
• Good understanding of robotic systems for space applications, including kinematics, dynamics, control and mechatronic system integration.
  
• Experience with modeling and simulation tools to support system design and validation (e.g. Matlab/Simulink, ROS-based frameworks or equivalent), at system or subsystem level.
  
• Demonstrated capability to drive system-level trade-offs, architecture definition and technical decision-making under constraints.
  
• Experience in managing technical interfaces with external stakeholders (e.g. primes, platform providers, suppliers) within complex space projects.
  
• Strong problem-solving skills with a system-level perspective, including risk identification, FMEA and mitigation strategies. xbvzest
  
• Ability to coordinate multidisciplinary engineering teams and ensure alignment between system requirements, design solutions and mission objectives.