Director of Engineering, Space Products (Loveland)

We are hiring a Director of Engineering, Space Products to build and lead the engineering group behind our flight power systems. Your role is to design and build this organization while it is still small enough to shape, and to get it delivering qualified flight hardware without relying on heroics. This is not a role that imports heavy aerospace bureaucracy, and it is not a role that keeps us in perpetual prototype mode. It is the role that builds the bridge between the two. Who Thrives HereRead this section first. If it does not sound like you, the rest will not matter. You build structure without smothering technical creativity. You work well with brilliant, opinionated technical people, and you do not need to out-expert them in every domain to earn their respect. You can turn ambiguous ideas and signed contracts into clear engineering ownership, staffing plans, and execution paths. You know when to defer to the Chief Engineer on technical authority and when to make the organizational call yourself. You can say no, not yet, or not without an owner when the company is about to overcommit, and you can make that stick. You genuinely enjoy growing engineers into technical owners, subsystem leads, and future managers. Scope and Authority We have seen engineering leadership roles fail because the authority was never written down. So here it is. You own, and decide: Headcount and hiring. You hold the engineering headcount budget and make the final hiring decision on every engineering role. Resource allocation. You decide how engineers are assigned across R&D, customer-funded programs, internal product development, and sustaining work. This is a decision, not a recommendation to Program Management. Organizational structure. Ownership lanes, role definitions, reporting lines, leveling, performance management, and personnel decisions. Commitment feasibility. No engineering commitment goes to a customer without your sign-off that it is staffed and achievable. You can veto scope on staffing grounds and escalate directly to the CEO if that veto is contested. Engineering process. Design review cadence, technical action tracking, configuration discipline, and engineering change practice, defined jointly with the Chief Engineer. You do not own: Technical architecture authority on the hardest design and risk decisions. That sits with the Chief Engineer, and you should want it to. Technical vision, external narrative, and partner strategy. That sits with the CTO.Integrated program cadence and customer-facing schedule reporting. That sits with Program Management. You report to the CTO. Engineering managers and leads report to you as the organization grows.

This role is onsite with our engineering and hardware teams in Loveland. Some flexibility exists where the work supports it, but this is not a detached remote leadership role. You need to be close to the team and the hardware to understand execution reality, coach managers, and clear blockers quickly. If you live in Northern Colorado, that is a feature and not a compromise. Nearly every other space company on the Front Range sits in Boulder, Lafayette, Louisville, or Longmont, which means a daily I-25 commute for anyone north of Berthoud. This job does not. Relocation assistance from out of state can be discussed at the right time during the interview process. U.S. Person Requirement This position involves access to flight hardware and technical data controlled under U.S. export control laws. Candidates must therefore qualify as a U.S. Person - a U.S. citizen or national, a lawful permanent resident, or an individual granted asylum or refugee status. This requirement stems from federal export regulations, not from a preference regarding citizenship or national origin.