Space Jobs for Systems Engineers

Showing the 80 roles that name a security clearance, every country. See every role

Pay by specialty

Every specialty gets its typical band from its own open roles, computed by the same method as the rest of the site (the 25th percentile of what roles pay (the middle of each posted range, as a year's pay: an hourly rate counts at 2,080 hours, 40 a week for 52 weeks) to the 90th-percentile posted top). A specialty is listed once three or more distinct rates have been posted.

What the roles ask for

Drawn from the requirement lines of 267 out of 380 open roles for systems engineers, the same lines each role's pop-up quotes from its posting. Each role is counted once, at the lowest degree it will accept.

• Name years of experience221
• Name a security clearance80
• Name u.S. person status (ITAR or EAR)29
• Set a residency or work-authorization condition21
• Require programming (Python, C++, MATLAB and similar)12
• Ask for a certification1

Where a posting states years of experience, the median ask is 5 years.

Who hires systems engineers in the space industry

Employer	Open roles	Pay stated
Muon Space	9	$151k–$246k/yr
Hubble Network	2	$128k–$286k/yr
Turion Space	1	$125k–$175k/yr
Momentus	1	$160k–$200k/yr
Inversion Space	3	$106k–$193k/yr
Quindar	2	$110k–$180k/yr
Albedo	1	$161k–$185k/yr
Varda Space Industries	8	$105k–$203k/yr
Apex	11	$90k–$215k/yr
K2 Space	12	$100k–$280k/yr
Loft Orbital	5	$125k–$230k/yr
Stoke Space	4	$98.8k–$393k/yr
BlackSky	1	Not stated
Northwood Space	3	$104k–$226k/yr
Starfish Space	1	$100k–$180k/yr
True Anomaly	7	$105k–$235k/yr
Firefly Aerospace	5	Not stated
Blue Origin	78	Not stated
Northrop Grumman	31	Not stated
Boeing	23	Not stated
Axiom Space	7	Not stated
The Exploration Company	6	Not stated
ICEYE	3	Not stated
Isar Aerospace	3	Not stated
RTX	3	Not stated
Astroscale	2	Not stated
Kepler Communications	1	Not stated
SpaceX	26	$100k–$280k/yr
Planet	6	$114k–$183k/yr
Vantor	11	$99k–$196k/yr
AST SpaceMobile	16	Not stated
Loft Federal	1	$136k/yr
Voyager Technologies	17	$48.9k–$279k/yr
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory	8	$97k–$180k/yr
Ursa Major	5	$108k–$195k/yr
Terran Orbital	6	$100k–$200k/yr
Relativity Space	8	$104k–$175k/yr
Vast	8	$112k–$159k/yr
Rocket Lab	32	$52k–$173k/yr
Astranis	3	$115k–$180k/yr

Sorted by the expected value of an application (acceptance odds times posted pay). A referral agreement, if an employer has one, can raise it in this order but never changes the salary it offers.

Where these roles are posted

The US states with the most open roles for systems engineers, and the roles posted for a single country. A place name leads to its own page, and a country's count lists the matching roles.

What our research measures about systems & test work

Read from the open postings on 2026-10-29 by our space industry research, rebuilt every day. Every figure opens the row of the report it comes from.

• Who is hiring779 open roles (9.6% of the space roles we read) at 44 employers, 169 of them posted in the last 30 days.
• Where the jobs are5.8% of these roles are remote; the rest are on-site or hybrid.
• Who can apply78.2% of the postings are open only to US persons or US citizens, and 23.8% name a security clearance.
• Skills and toolsThe skills its postings name most: Python (55%), MATLAB (25%) and C or C++ (20%).
• Degrees and experience2.4% of the postings take a high school diploma or an associate's degree, 29.9% name a master's or PhD, and they ask for a median of 4 years of experience at the least.
• Pay transparency46.7% of the postings state their pay, at a median $133,000 a year.
• Internships and entry level59 open roles are for someone starting out (7.6% of its open roles).
• Shifts, weekends and travel20.2% of the postings ask for weekend work, 18.9% for overtime or extended hours, and 2.2% name an evening, night or rotating shift.