Ursa Major

Chief Engineer, Vehicle

Berthoud, Colorado · Exec · Full-time

Sponsorship not specified$175k-$230kDetected 16 days ago

CybersecurityAvionicsSystems EngineeringMechanical DesignAerospace EngineeringResearchLeadershipCommunicationMentoring

About the role

Ursa Major is seeking a Chief Engineer, Vehicle to serve as the technical authority and architectural owner for the Draper Engine Vehicle program.
This individual will be accountable for the end-to-end vehicle technical baseline, ensuring the successful integration of propulsion, structures, avionics, GNC, thermal, and mission systems into a flight-worthy, scalable vehicle solution.
This role is critical to delivering reliable, high-performance systems to government and commercial customers on aggressive schedules.

Own and maintain the vehicle system architecture, technical baseline, and configuration for the Draper Engine Vehicle.
Serve as the final technical decision authority for vehicle-level design trades, requirements allocation, and risk acceptance.
Lead vehicle-level systems engineering, including requirements flow-down, interface control, verification & validation (V&V), and configuration management.
Program Execution Support
Partner with Program Management to balance performance, cost, schedule, and risk.
Identify technical risks early and lead mitigation plans through test, analysis, or design iteration.
Provide technical leadership and mentorship to subsystem leads and senior engineers.

12+ years of experience in aerospace vehicle development, including system-level ownership.
Ability to make sound technical decisions under schedule and performance pressure

Master's degree in Aerospace Engineering or related field
Experience with hypersonic vehicles, missiles, launch vehicles, or advanced propulsion systems.
Familiarity with thermal, structural, and aero integration challenges in hypersonic regimes
Experience operating in ISO 9001 or AS9100 certified organizations
Background working with DoD, DARPA, or classified programs.
Familiarity with model-based systems engineering (MBSE) tools.
Experience scaling a vehicle program from prototype to production.
Active or ability to obtain a U.S. security clearance.

Colorado law requires us to tell you the base compensation range of this role, which is $175,000 - $230,000, determined by your education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities.

Vacation, Sick, Personal, and Bereavement
Paid Parental and Adoptive Leave
Medical, Dental and Vision Insurance
Tax Advantage Accounts (HSA/FSA)
Employer Paid Short and Long Term Disability, Basic Life, AD&D
Additional Benefit Options Including Voluntary Life and Emergency Medical Transport
Retirement Savings Plan
Equity Grants in the Company
You will be considered for employment without attention to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran, or disability status.

Support proposal efforts, customer technical interchange meetings (TIMs), and design reviews with government and commercial customers.

This listing is sourced directly from Ursa Major's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.