Senior Project Lead Engineer
D-Orbit
Are you ready to take your career to new heights? At D-Orbit, we're pioneering the future of space logistics and transportation. Established in 2011, our company is leading the way in helping businesses profitably and sustainably unlock the full potential of the final frontier.
As a member of our team, you'll have the opportunity to work alongside a diverse group of highly skilled individuals, all driven by a shared passion for innovation and excellence. Join us in our global mission to push the boundaries of what's possible and take your ambition to new heights. Apply now and join us in shaping the future of space.
The Senior Project Lead Engineer plays a central role within the Business Unit Government & Defense, acting as the technical reference responsible for steering the engineering development of complex institutional and defense space programs.
The role combines strong system level technical expertise with the capability to coordinate multidisciplinary engineering teams, ensuring technical coherence, compliance and effective execution throughout the entire project lifecycle. The Senior Project Lead Engineer operates at the interface between technical teams, project management and customers, supporting key technical decisions and ensuring alignment between mission requirements, technical solutions, schedule and cost constraints.
The position requires proven experience in leading space programs from early design phases through development, integration and verification, and contributes to proposal activities, technical risk management and continuous improvement of engineering and delivery approaches in line with corporate strategy and institutional market expectations. The role also contributes to proposal activities and to the definition of long term product and technology strategies in line with market evolution and corporate objectives.
Key Responsibilities:
• Act as technical lead for space programs, ensuring end-to-end technical coherence across system, subsystem and equipment levels.
• Coordinate and guide multidisciplinary engineering teams throughout the full project lifecycle, from Phase A/B to C/D/E.
• Translate customer and mission needs into coherent system solutions, ensuring alignment between technical implementation, schedule and cost constraints.
• Support the Project Manager in technical decision-making, risk assessment, and trade-off activities, contributing to project success criteria.
• Ensure compliance with applicable standards and customer requirements (ECSS, institutional and defense-specific standards).
• Oversee system engineering activities including requirements management, interface definition, configuration control and verification strategy.
• Monitor technical progress, identify critical issues, and coordinate mitigation actions across engineering disciplines.
• Lead technical reviews and represent the project during customer, internal and supplier technical meetings.
• Support proposal and pre-sales activities by defining technical approaches, work breakdowns, development plans and effort estimations.
• Contribute within the BU technical team to the definition of product and technology roadmaps, aligned with corporate strategy and market evolution.
Skills & Qualifications:
• Minimum 10+ years of professional experience in engineering roles within the space or aerospace sector.
• Proven experience as technical lead, lead engineer or system-level responsible on complex space or institutional programs.
• Proven experience in institutional space programs (e.g.: ESA, MoDs, Regional space agencies), including high reliability and security driven mission contexts.
• Demonstrated experience covering the full development lifecycle of a satellite program, from early mission phases (Phase A/B) through detailed design, AIT, verification, qualification and in orbit delivery.
• Ability to operate effectively within multi stakeholder institutional environments, interfacing with agencies, prime contractors and international partners throughout the program lifecycle.
• Strong background in space system engineering principles, including requirements, interfaces, verification and lifecycle management.
• Demonstrated ability to coordinate and technically lead multidisciplinary teams (system, avionics, AIV, payload, operations).
• Solid knowledge of ECSS standards and familiarity with institutional and defense program environments.
• Excellent capability to interface with customers, partners and suppliers at senior technical and managerial level.
• Strong analytical, leadership and decision-making skills, with the ability to manage technical risk and complexity.
• Experience in proposal preparation and technical oversight of bids is considered a strong asset.
• Good communication skills and willingness to operate in an international and institutional environment.
• Deep knowledge of AI tools.
Hiring Process:
Here’s how our hiring process works—simple and straightforward:
Application review: We go through all applications, but we'll only reach out to candidates who closely match what we're looking for.
If you don’t hear from us, it means we’re not moving forward with your application at this time, but we may consider you profile for more aligned opening in the future!
First chat: Selected candidates will have an informal meeting with us so we can get to know each other and talk through mutual expectations and goals.
Technical interviews: Next, you’ll have one or two technical interviews, focused on your skills and how you approach challenges relevant to the role.
Offer: If all goes well, we’ll send you an offer! Sometimes this stage can take a bit of time, as we like to carefully consider each candidate and make sure the fit with the team is just right.
We do our best to get back to everyone we interview, but sometimes things take longer than we'd like and updates might be a bit slow. If you've got any questions, just reach out to us!
We’re excited to get to know you and see if you might be the next person to help us reach new heights together!
Extra-UE applicants:
This is NOT a full remote job, so, you need VISA to work in Italy.
We can currently consider only applicants with an existing right to work in the country.
Some activities must be carried out in our facilities, many others are location-independent, and they can be performed effectively even remotely. This is why we don't measure the performance of people by how many hours they spend at the office: we only measure the outcome.
At D-Orbit, diversity and inclusivity are not just values, they are integral to our mission and the way we operate. We are committed to fostering an environment where all individuals are respected, valued, and celebrated for their unique backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences. We believe that a diverse and inclusive workplace is not only the right thing to do, but it also leads to better decision making, innovation, and overall success. We actively strive to build a culture where everyone can bring their authentic selves to work, and where all voices are heard and valued. We are dedicated to creating a workplace where everyone feels safe, supported, and empowered to share their ideas, and where everyone is given equal opportunities to grow and excel. We believe that our differences make us stronger, and we will continue to work diligently to create an inclusive culture at D-Orbit that reflects this belief.
