Satellite Systems Engineer (Payload & Spacecraft)

About Player One Space

Player One Space (P1S) is a Canadian space technology company headquartered in Vancouver, BC, building at the intersection of Space, AI, and Data. Our mission is to commercialize space and build a global category leader out of Canada — starting from Canada's regulatory, Arctic, and Five-Eyes advantages, and scaling worldwide.

We have closed our seed round, are backed by top-tier funds, and have assembled a network of world-class advisors, mentors, and operators from across the space, defense, and data industries. Our team has shipped real spacecraft hardware (Khrunichev, Proton/Angara), built and operated LEO constellations inside Amazon's Project Kuiper, and led large-scale AI/data platforms at Amazon, Microsoft, and Fortune 500s.

We are now putting our first satellites on orbit — and we need a hands-on systems engineer who can build the spacecraft and the payload end-to-end.

The Role

We are looking for a Satellite Systems Engineer who can design, build, integrate, and fly our first satellites — including the payload that defines our product.

You will own the full spacecraft engineering lifecycle: bus selection and integration, payload design and build, subsystem trade studies, vendor reviews, environmental and functional testing, the launch campaign, and on-orbit commissioning. You will work directly with the CEO and CTO, lead the technical interface with our bus and component vendors, and be hands-on across mechanical, electrical, RF, thermal, ADCS, power, and communications subsystems.

This is a founding engineering seat — small team, real spacecraft, fast cadence, and meaningful early-employee equity. You will see your work fly within your first 12 to 18 months.

What You'll Own

• Satellite system design — lead bus and component selection, subsystem trade studies, and end-to-end satellite architecture for 6U and picosat-class spacecraft.
• Payload engineering — design and build the payload that defines our product (communications / IoT / PNT / data). Own the payload architecture, electronics, RF front-end, antenna integration, firmware, and payload-to-bus interfaces.
• Subsystem ownership — ADCS, power, thermal, structures, and comms. Run the budgets (mass, power, link, data) and keep them honest through the design cycle.
• Payload integration — integrate the payload with the satellite bus; own mechanical, electrical, thermal, and software interfaces.
• Vendor management — lead technical reviews with bus, component, and launch vendors. Read every datasheet. Push back when needed.
• Test & verification — plan and execute environmental testing (vibration, thermal vacuum, EMC), functional testing, and pre-ship reviews.
• Launch campaign — own the integration and launch campaign with our rideshare provider (SpaceX Transporter / Bandwagon via Exolaunch or equivalent).
• On-orbit operations — lead Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP), commissioning, and steady-state operations alongside the ground segment team.
• Documentation & reviews — system requirements, ICDs, PDR/CDR-style reviews, and the engineering record of the program.

Who You Are

Required

• 3+ years of hands-on spacecraft engineering experience. CubeSats, smallsats, or larger — you have personally been part of a program that put hardware on orbit.
• You have built a payload. You have personally designed, built, or integrated a satellite payload — communications, sensing, or scientific. You know how to take a payload from schematic to flight hardware.
• Systems engineering depth. You think in interfaces, margins, and failure modes. You can run a mass, power, link, and data budget and keep them aligned through the design cycle.
• Subsystem fluency. Working knowledge of ADCS, power (solar / battery / EPS), thermal, structures, and communications subsystems. You don't need to be an expert in all, but you can hold your own in a review for any.
• RF and link budget literacy. You can size a satellite-to-ground link, reason about modulation, coding, and antenna gain, and read an RF datasheet without flinching.
• Electronics & embedded. You can read a schematic, lay out a board (or work closely with someone who does), bring up hardware, and write or debug firmware on an MCU or SoC.
• Integration & test experience. You have personally been in the clean room or test facility for spacecraft integration, environmental testing, and pre-ship reviews.
• Vendor management. You have led technical conversations with commercial bus, component, or launch vendors and held them to schedule and spec.
• Hands-on builder. You can wire a harness, run a sim, debug a serial bus, and write a clean test procedure. You do not need a team of ten to make progress.
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Aerospace, Electrical, Mechanical, Systems, or related engineering discipline — or equivalent shipping experience.

Strongly Preferred

• Experience with commercial CubeSat bus vendors (6U and sub-6U platforms) and CubeSat deployers.
• Experience with SDR-based payloads (USRP, ADALM-Pluto, custom FPGA RF) and protocol stack development.
• Experience with AWS Ground Station, KSAT, Atlas Space, or other commercial ground networks.
• Experience with mission ops software, telemetry pipelines, or flight software development.
• Experience with spectrum coordination (ISED, FCC, or ITU) and orbital debris assessment.
• Familiarity with satellite IoT, satellite communications, navigation / PNT, or Earth observation systems.
• Prior startup or small-team experience — comfort owning ambiguous scope.

What We're Not Looking For

• Engineers who have only worked on paper studies or simulations with no flight hardware experience.
• Specialists who are unwilling to work across subsystems or touch a payload.
• People who need a large team and a slow cadence to do their best work.

What You Get

• Competitive cash salary — benchmarked to Canadian seed-stage space engineering market.
• Meaningful early-employee equity — you will be one of the first engineers on the cap table.
• Real spacecraft on orbit, fast — you will see your work fly within your first 12 to 18 months.
• Funded company — seed round closed; you walk into a real budget and real customer pipeline.
• Top-tier advisors and mentors — direct access to operators who have built billion-dollar space, defense, and data companies.
• Range and ownership — in a small team, you will touch every subsystem and every phase of the program, including the payload that defines our product.

Location

• Vancouver, BC (preferred) — this is where the company is built and where integration happens.
• Open to hybrid for the right person, with regular on-site presence in Vancouver.
• Must be eligible to work in Canada (citizen, PR, or eligible for fast-track immigration — we will support relocation for the right person).