Darwin Space are currently hiring for a Lead Space Engineer on behalf of a business in Bologna, Italy.

Key Responsibilities:

* Lead and manage the Space Engineering team, ensuring effective coordination, task allocation, and technical alignment across all project phases;

* Define, manage and maintain system-level technical requirements, specifications, and ICDs, ensuring full traceability across the entire development lifecycle;

* Lead the end-to-end development of space robotic systems/products from engineering model (EM) to flight model (FM), overseeing design, integration, verification and qualification activities performed by the team;

* Oversee system engineering processes, including requirement flow-down, verification planning, and compliance with space standards (e.g. ECSS);

* Act as primary technical authority and interface with customers and stakeholders, managing mission requirements and ensuring alignment between external needs and internal development.

* Coordinate technical interactions with external partners, including platform providers, launch service providers, and component suppliers.

* Lead integration, testing and qualification campaigns (functional, environmental, and system-level), supervising execution and ensuring robustness and mission readiness.

* Drive system-level architecture, design decisions and trade-offs for robotic space applications (e.g. EOAT, ADR, IOS, IOM), leveraging inputs from the engineering team.

* Lead technical reviews (SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, etc.), risk assessments, and FMEA activities.

* Ensure the production, review and quality of all internal and external technical documentation (reports, test documentation, review data packages), coordinating inputs across disciplines, and lead technical meetings and reviews.

* Mentor, guide and grow the engineering team, ensuring capability development, knowledge sharing, and alignment with company technical strategy.

Must-have:

* Education: Master’s degree or PhD. in Robotics, Aerospace Engineering, Mechatronics Engineering, or related fields.

* 5-7+ years of experience in the design, development and qualification of space systems or subsystems, with exposure to full project lifecycle (Phase A-E).

* Strong expertise in system engineering practices, including requirement definition and flow-down, interface management (ICDs), verification & validation (V&V), and configuration control.

* Solid knowledge of space standards (e.g. ECSS) and experience in preparing and reviewing technical documentation for formal project reviews (SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, etc.).

* Proven experience in leading integration, verification and testing (AIT/AIV) activities for complex systems, including environmental and functional testing campaigns.

* Good understanding of robotic systems for space applications, including kinematics, dynamics, control and mechatronic system integration.

* Experience with modeling and simulation tools to support system design and validation (e.g. Matlab/Simulink, ROS-based frameworks or equivalent), at system or subsystem level.

* Demonstrated capability to drive system-level trade-offs, architecture definition and technical decision-making under constraints.

* Experience in managing technical interfaces with external stakeholders (e.g. primes, platform providers, suppliers) within complex space projects.

* Strong problem-solving skills with a system-level perspective, including risk identification, FMEA and mitigation strategies.

* Ability to coordinate multidisciplinary engineering teams and ensure alignment between system requirements, design solutions and mission objectives.

Darwin Recruitment is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.

James Godfrey