Varda Space Industries · 1 week ago
Senior Mission Manager
El Segundo, California, United States
Full-time
Onsite
Senior Level
$160K/yr - $200K/yr
7+ years expVarda is a company focused on commercial space infrastructure, aiming to benefit life on Earth through innovations in the orbital economy. As a Senior Mission Manager, you will be the primary technical and programmatic interface for customers, managing missions from inception through execution, and coordinating with various teams to ensure mission success.
AerospaceManufacturingProduct Design
No H1B
U.S. Citizen Only
Responsibilities
Serve as the primary technical and programmatic point of contact for our customers, helping to resolve issues, negotiate requirements and contract changes, communicate status and risks, and ensure a positive outcome for all parties
Lead programmatic execution of customer missions from prior to contract signature through development, integration, launch, operations, and recovery of our customer's flown assets
Collaborate across the company (e.g. engineering, regulatory, sales, payloads) to understand status and changes that may impact customer success and work to mitigate issues
Lead major customer reviews and deliverables, coordinating cross functionally to plan for, develop and deliver high quality materials and briefings
Support or lead, depending on the customer, development and verification of technical interface control documents
Support our Sales team with proposal efforts to ensure new projects are appropriately scoped and aligned with strategic company vision, and that contracts are well-defined and executable
Qualification
Required
Bachelor's degree or higher in an engineering or science discipline
7+ years of Program or Project Management experience
Experience with US Government contracts and program execution
Experience with spacecraft mission design, development, integration and test, launch and/or operations
Strong written and verbal communication
Excellent negotiation, conflict resolution and leadership skills
Willingness to travel up to 25% of the time
U.S. Citizen or lawful permanent resident of the U.S. to conform with U.S. Government space technology export regulations under ITAR
Preferred
Master's degree in an engineering field
8+ years of experience working with government, NASA, or commercial launch contract
Experience with spacecraft mission design, development, integration and test, launch and/or operations
Experience with US Government contracts
Full spacecraft mission project lifecycle experience (cradle-to-grave)
Benefits
Exciting team of professionals at the top of their field working by your side
Equity in a fully funded space startup with potential for significant growth (interns excluded)
401(k) matching (interns excluded)
Unlimited PTO (interns excluded)
Health insurance, including Vision and Dental
Lunch and snacks provided on site every day. Dinners provided twice a week.
Maternity / Paternity leave (interns excluded)
Company
Varda Space Industries
Varda is building the infrastructure for a thriving orbital economy, from in-orbit pharmaceutical processing to reliable and economical reentry capsules.
51-200 employees
Funding
Current Stage
Growth StageTotal Funding
$328.02MKey Investors
Alumni VenturesCaffeinated CapitalKhosla Ventures
2025-07-10Series C· $187M
2024-12-19Series C
2024-04-05Series B· $90M
Leadership Team
Will Bruey
Chief Executive Officer
Recent News
Business Insider
2025-12-25
2025-12-17
Company data provided by crunchbase