Senior Specialist, Systems Engineer - Space Vehicle

L3Harris is dedicated to recruiting and developing high-performing talent who are passionate about what they do. Our employees are unified in a shared dedication to our customers’ mission and quest for professional growth. L3Harris provides an inclusive, engaging environment designed to empower employees and promote work-life success. Fundamental to our culture is an unwavering focus on values, dedication to our communities, and commitment to excellence in everything we do. L3Harris is the Trusted Disruptor in defense tech. With customers’ mission-critical needs always in mind, our employees deliver end-to-end technology solutions connecting the space, air, land, sea and cyber domains in the interest of national security. Job Title: Senior Specialist, Systems Engineer – Space Vehicle Job Code: 44453 Job Location: Fort Wayne, Indiana or Palm Bay, Florida Job Schedule: 9/80 (Every Other Friday Off!) Job Description: The L3Harris Spectral Solutions division is seeking a Systems Engineer to support space vehicle–level development for missile warning and missile defense missions. This role contributes to the technical planning, requirements development, integration, verification, and lifecycle support of advanced space-based systems supporting critical national security objectives. The Systems Engineer works across multidisciplinary teams to help define, allocate, and manage interfaces among payload, bus, software, ground, and mission elements in alignment with program goals and customer needs. This position supports system architecture trades, technical assessments, and risk identification to help deliver balanced solutions that meet performance, schedule, cost, and mission assurance requirements. The role assists in translating mission needs into system and subsystem requirements and helps maintain traceability throughout design, integration, and test activities. The Systems Engineer may lead small technical efforts or coordinate with cross-functional contributors to resolve system-level issues and support program execution. This position also contributes to verification and validation planning, anomaly resolution, configuration management, and technical reviews across the space vehicle lifecycle. The ideal candidate brings strong systems thinking, collaboration, and communication skills, along with experience supporting complex aerospace or defense programs in a team-oriented engineering environment. Essential Functions: •    Support space vehicle-level systems engineering for satellite programs from concept development through design, integration, test, launch, and mission operations support. •    Contribute to the development, decomposition, allocation, and management of spacecraft system requirements to subsystem and component levels. •    Coordinate with cross-functional technical teams including systems, payload, avionics, flight software, mechanical, thermal, power, propulsion, guidance and control, integration and test, and mission operations to support successful program execution. •    Assist in the development and maintenance of the space vehicle architecture, technical baseline, and interface definitions to help ensure system compatibility and mission success. Perform system-level trades, performance analyses, and technical assessments affecting spacecraft capability, cost, schedule, reliability, and risk. •    Support system integration, verification, validation, and test planning to ensure compliance with program requirements and mission objectives. •    Participate in major technical reviews, including SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, FRR, and post-launch readiness activities, and communicate technical status to internal and external stakeholders. •    Identify, assess, and help mitigate technical risks and opportunities associated with spacecraft design, manufacturing, integration, environmental test, and launch vehicle interfaces. •    Collaborate with program management, production,