Chief engineer
| Highest | $13,000 / mo · United States |
|---|---|
| Experience | 8+ yrs |
| Degree | Required |
| First paycheck | 4 to 6 years of study (for a junior engineer paycheck) |
Pay in the destination countries
Monthly, in US dollars. Each country is an Imora admission package — open one for that route's fees, language requirement and deadline.
What does the day look like?
About 15% of the day is spent on high-level architecture analysis, reviewing orbital mechanics models, mass, power, and link budgets, and planning mission failure mitigations. The remaining 85% is non-glamorous coordination: configuration control boards, resolving technical discrepancies, reviewing formal engineering change proposals (ECPs), cross-disciplinary alignment (thermal, mechanical, software, RF, propulsion, radiation), vendor subsystem verification, and signing flight-readiness compliance papers.
Daily work uses tools such as Cameo Systems Modeler, IBM Rational Rhapsody, SysML, IBM DOORS, Jama Software, Ansys Systems Tool Kit (STK), MATLAB, and Simulink, alongside FTA and FMECA failure analyses. Standard office hours apply during mission formulation. However, environmental testing (vibration and thermal vacuum chambers) and the launch and early orbit phase (LEOP) require 12-hour rotating shifts, 24/7 on-call availability, and mandatory physical console presence.
Where does this lead?
People arrive from
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