Orbit Determination Group Lead

Orbit Determination Group Lead

Littleton, CO

Intuitive Machines is a leading space infrastructure company that builds spacecraft, connects networks, and operates infrastructure-as-a-service serving commercial, civil and national security customers.

With a proven track record across the space domain, the Company has built over 300 spacecraft, delivered over 260 kilograms of payload to the lunar surface and provided precision navigation expertise that has guided spacecraft across our solar system. The Company is dedicated to enabling customers to achieve mission and campaign outcomes through a single prime solution. Intuitive Machines’ technology has been demonstrated across the space domain and is engineered to support the next century of opportunity in space.

We are seeking a talented and experienced Orbit Determination (OD) Group Lead to play a key role on our Flight Dynamics Interplanetary team
. As the OD Group Lead, you will lead a team of about 10 engineers responsible for providing OD services including algorithm and code development, mission operations support, and process improvement.

• Management, guidance, and technical leadership for the Orbit Determination (OD) Group, including conducting performance reviews, supporting career development plans and retention, participating in hiring processes, onboarding new team members, mentoring and training group members, and escalation handling.
• Manage staff assignments on existing and new projects to meet technical and operational needs. Negotiate priorities when multiple projects compete for resources. Track functional capacity and forecast hiring needs.
• Unify technical practices and problem solving across projects and proposals supported by the group.
• Direct and support development and maintenance of OD software and tools across projects.
• Support high profile interplanetary missions such as NASA’s OSIRIS-APEX, Lucy, and DAVINCI missions, as well as commercial Lunar and Mars programs.
• Support proposals by providing OD scope, ROMs, staffing plans, and technical review/inputs.

• MS in Aerospace Engineering, Astrodynamics, or related technical domain
• 8+ years of experience in navigation mission development and orbit determination operations, ideally in lunar or interplanetary missions.
• Leadership experience that demonstrates success leading engineers with clear evidence of acting as a technical or team lead with responsibility for mentoring, work planning, and cross-team coordination in preparation for managing the group.
• Strong understanding of estimation theory, orbital mechanics, and spacecraft dynamics.
• Demonstrated expertise with measurement modeling (radiometric/optical), covariance analysis, filter/smoother methods, observability, and OD performance metrics.
• Excellent analytical thinking, technical writing, and verbal communication with the ability to explain complex OD tradeoffs to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Proficiency with at least one major OD software system (MONTE, MIRAGE, ODTK, GMAT, Orekit)
• Strong Python skills for analysis and automation, with an ability to guide a team toward maintainable, testable, well-documented code.
• Experience with Linux operating systems
• Ability to work collaboratively in a multi-disciplinary team environment.
• Strong systems engineering interface experience
• Must be a US Citizen

• PhD in Aerospace Engineering, Astrodynamics, or related technical domain
• Software development leadership, with hands-on experience guiding code reviews, implementing CI/CD, establishing testing standards, managing versioning and releases, and setting effective engineering processes for teams.
• Proficiency with MIRAGE and/or MONTE orbit determination tools
• Proficiency in FORTRAN

US EEO Statement

Intuitive Machines is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding, or medical conditions related to pregnancy, childbirth, or breastfeeding), age, medical condition, marital or domestic partner status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression and transgender status, mental disability or physical disability, genetic information, military or veteran status, citizenship, low-income status or any other status or characteristic protected by applicable law.