Satellite Systems Engineer

Player One Space (P1S) is a Canadian space technology company headquartered in Vancouver, BC, building at the intersection of Space, AI, and Data. We have closed our seed round and are building the satellites, ground systems, and software platform that will define the next decade of commercial space.

Our team has shipped real spacecraft hardware, operated LEO constellations, and built 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 to lead that work.

As Satellite Systems Engineer, you will lead the engineering of our first satellites end-to-end — bus selection and integration, payload design, subsystem trade studies, vendor reviews, environmental and functional testing, launch campaign, and on-orbit commissioning.

You will work directly with the CEO and CTO, own the technical interface with our bus and component vendors, and be hands-on across mechanical, electrical, thermal, ADCS, power, and communications subsystems. You will be in the loop on every major technical decision the company makes.

This is a founding engineering seat — small team, real spacecraft, fast cadence, and meaningful early-employee equity.

• Satellite system design — lead bus and component selection, subsystem trade studies, and end-to-end satellite architecture for 6U and picosat-class spacecraft.
• Payload integration — integrate communications and data payloads with the satellite bus; own mechanical, electrical, and software interfaces.
• Subsystem ownership — ADCS, power, thermal, structures, and comms. Run the budgets (mass, power, link, data) and keep them honest.
• 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.

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.
• 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 of them, but you can hold your own in a review for any of them.
• 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.
• 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 (e.g. 6U and sub-6U platforms) and CubeSat deployers.
• 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.
• Prior startup or small-team experience — comfort owning ambiguous scope.
• Familiarity with satellite IoT, satellite communications, navigation / PNT, or Earth observation systems.

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.
• People who need a large team and a slow cadence to do their best work.

• 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.

• 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).

Email dima@playeronespace.com with:

• Your CV or LinkedIn.
• A short note on the satellite programs you have worked on — what role you played, what hardware flew, and what you would do differently next time.
• Links to anything you're proud of — missions, papers, patents, GitHub, talks.

We read every application personally. If there is a fit, you will hear back within a week.

Player One Space — Building the next great space company out of Canada.