Systems Engineer, Amazon LEO - Mission Operations

Amazon LEO is an initiative to launch a constellation of Low Earth Orbit satellites that will provide low-latency, high-speed broadband connectivity to unserved and underserved communities around the world.

Key job responsibilities

As a Systems Engineer within Amazon Leo Mission Operations, you will own the cross-system resolution of operational problems that determine whether multiple satellite constellations—including broadband and direct-to-device—can be operated safely, reliably, and at scale. You will own the operational thread from problem discovery through validated closure: identifying systemic issues through incident trends, telemetry, operator feedback, recurring manual interventions, and cross-service failure modes, framing the underlying mission need, and translating it into concepts of operations, system requirements, interface expectations, and testable acceptance criteria. You will conduct trade studies, requirements decomposition and traceability, interface definition, operational risk assessment, and cross-functional technical decisions. You will author CONOPS documents and operational requirements, define and maintain interface expectations between ground services, and establish clear owners, closure criteria, dependencies, and escalation paths for problems that span organizational boundaries. You will manage the operational risk register, define and track fleet health KPIs, and own the operational architecture roadmap that defines how operations scale across constellations with distinct mission profiles and growing fleet sizes. Your objective is not merely to represent operator requests, but to ensure that operational needs are incorporated into system architecture and resolved without transferring hidden cost, workload, or risk elsewhere in the mission.

You will define verification strategies that demonstrate compliance with operational requirements and validation strategies that demonstrate mission utility under representative conditions. This includes nominal and off-nominal scenarios, degraded system states, failure injection, recovery behavior, realistic fleet volumes, and representative operator workload. Before a capability reaches the fleet, you will assess the complete operational-readiness package, including observability, procedures, training, support ownership, fallback behavior, and deployment or rollback criteria.

The ideal candidate combines systems-level thinking with sufficient technical depth to interrogate architectures, requirements, interfaces, telemetry, test evidence, and failure behavior. You should be able to decompose ambiguous operational problems across hardware, software, ground, and human elements; identify the assumptions and interfaces driving system risk; and drive multiple engineering teams toward a coherent resolution. Success requires influence without direct authority, disciplined planning and prioritization, strong written and verbal communication, and a verification mindset that does not treat a capability as complete until it has been proven operable under realistic mission conditions.

Export Control Requirement: Due to applicable export control laws and regulations, candidates must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (i.e., current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.

A day in the life

You will identify systemic operational problems across the constellation by living in the operational data, triaging anomalies directly, and staying tightly coupled to operator experience. You will author operational requirements and drive cross-functional engineering teams to resolution. You will own operational verification and validation, ensuring solutions work under real fleet conditions. You will manage fleet health KPIs and the operational risk register, tracking what matters and driving accountability. You will define how the constellation is operated at scale and be responsible for the operational readiness of the LEO mission.

About the team

Amazon LEO Mission Operations team owns the infrastructure that manages and operates the constellation, providing a stable foundation for the networking team to run customer-facing connectivity service.

Basic Qualifications

• Experience in automating, deploying, and supporting large-scale infrastructure
• Experience programming with at least one modern language such as Python, Ruby, Golang, Java, C++, C#, Rust
• Experience with Linux/Unix
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines build processes
• 3+ years of experience in the Aerospace industry.
• 1+ year of prior experience in a spacecraft operations or direct support role.
• Technical understanding of space system architecture and subsystem functionality

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with distributed systems at scale
• Familiarity with all of the following disciplines and demonstrated technical understanding of at least two: - Orbital mechanics and constellation design - Spacecraft guidance, navigation, and control hardware and software - Electrical engineering - Terrestrial and satellite communications systems and networking - Spacecraft structures and mechanisms - Embedded software - Satellite propulsion systems - Data-driven engineering approach and ability assess system performance with statistical analysis
• Strong communications skills, ability to work collaboratively in a team environment, and enjoyment of learning and teaching new skills
• Demonstrated ability to drive requirements for concepts of operation and space systems
• Experience developing, working with, and scaling autonomous space mission operations
• Experience working through the software development lifecycle, including requirements development and integrated testing.
• Comfortable working with ambiguous problems, assessing risk, reducing uncertainty, and handling the pressure of mission critical operations

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.

Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.

The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits.

USA, WA, Redmond - 129,200.00 - 174,800.00 USD annually