---
title: 'Payload Systems Engineer I at Lodestar'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/payload-systems-engineer-i-lodestar-los-angeles-er1wj7bsd3sd'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-14'
---

# Payload Systems Engineer I at Lodestar

- **Company:** Lodestar
- **Location:** Los Angeles, CA
- **Posted:** 2026-09-25
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-14
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.eu.greenhouse.io/lodestarspace/jobs/4987198101

## Job description

## About Lodestar

Lodestar's mission is to develop the first "Protect and Defend" capability for high-value space assets in orbit. Our flagship product MITHRIL is the critical hardware & software necessary to augment any off-the-shelf spacecraft with the ability to autonomously detect, characterise, and reversibly neutralise orbital threats. By building on the proven space heritage of our best-in-class satellite-bus partners and fully integrating MITHRIL as a single platform, we deliver a fully autonomous end-to-end protection spacecraft service.

## About the Job

As a Payload Engineer I at Lodestar, you'll join the payload team as a primary delivery engineer, taking the payload from laboratory breadboard to qualified engineering model.

You'll help design, build, integrate and test the payload across optics, mechanical, avionics and software. Working alongside senior systems, GNC, electronics and optics engineers, you'll take the engineering model through design reviews, integration and qualification.

This is an early-career role with a deliberately broad scope. We're looking for hands-on building experience and fast learning rather than a long track record, and you'll own the engineering model from day one with the support to grow into it.

We proudly have an "extreme ownership" oriented engineering culture.

## What You’ll Do

- Own the payload engineering model day-to-day, end-to-end: requirements, design, build, integration, test, and write-up
- Develop payload, autonomy, effector, power, thermal, and pointing requirements, and the ICDs between payload, avionics, and spacecraft bus
- Prepare SRR, PDR and CDR packages, and keep the verification matrix and risk register current between reviews
- Carry out performance verification and feed corrective design iterations back into the build
- Run hardware-in-the-loop testing at internal & external testing facilities, closing the loop from perception through to pointing against simulated orbital targets
- Support environmental qualification (TVAC, launch vibration, EMC/EMI), including pre-and post-test functional testing and the anomaly and corrective-action trail
- Deliver an end-to-end ground demonstration on a payload-in-the-loop testbed
- Produce technical documentation: test reports, qualification records, and performance assessments against requirements

## Basic Qualifications

- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical or Electronic Engineering, Physics, Optics or Photonics, Robotics, Computer Science, or demonstrated equivalent knowledge
- 0-2 years of professional experience. Early-career candidates, including recent graduates, are encouraged to apply
- Hands-on evidence of building something real and making it work, such as a university cubesat or rocketry team, research lab, Formula Student, a hardware internship, or a project taken from nothing to working. We weight this far far above grades
- Working proficiency in Python

## Preferred Skills & Experience

- Space exposure in any form: CubeSat program, hosted payload, space or defense internship, or a space-focused Master's project
- Optics and photonics bench work
- Computer vision
- Closed-loop pointing and control
- End-to-end Environmental test and AIT experience
- Systems engineering practice
- Embedded or real-time software

ITAR Requirements

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR [here](https://www.pmddtc.state.gov/?id=ddtc_kb_article_page&sys_id=24d528fddbfc930044f9ff621f961987).

## Compensation & Benefits

- Pay Range for this role:
- (P1) Entry: $99,000 - $133,000 / year
- Meaningful equity incentives as part of our employee option pool
- Flexible PTO with generous paid vacation, holidays, and sick leave
- Comprehensive medical, dental & vision coverage
- 401(k) retirement plan with company match

Additional Information

Compensation bands are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual level and base pay is determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on job-related skills, education, experience, technical capabilities and internal equity. In addition to base salary, for full-time hires, you may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of stock options , and access to medical, vision and dental coverage, as well as access to a 401(k) retirement plan.

Lodestar is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Lodestar is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

## About Lodestar

## Core Business
- **Primary Industry**: Defense and Space Manufacturing
- **Target Customers**: Government and allied defense agencies (B2G); specifically US and allied space asset operators
- **Mission**: To deter conflict in space by providing credible, sovereign orbital defense capabilities through autonomous AI software and satellite platforms.

## Products & Services
- **Mithril AI (Autonomous AI Fighter-Pilot)**: Software that runs on orbital bodyguard satellites, enabling real-time space situational awareness, threat detection, classification, and autonomous response. Designed for on-orbit SDA, inspection, and effect delivery.
- **Orbital Defence as a Service**: End-to-end protection stack for high-value satellites, from detection and intelligence to active response, delivered via a fleet of bodyguard satellites.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available (private company)
- **Key Metric**: Total funding of approximately $3.55M (as of early 2026), comprising a $2.5M Pre-Seed round led by Lunar Ventures and Inflection, plus grants from the UK Space Agency ($1M) and European Space Agency.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Lunar Ventures, Inflection, UK Space Agency, European Space Agency, Charlie Songhurst, Zehan Wang
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - 14 employees with 8 active job postings (indicating rapid scaling)
  - First satellite payload scheduled for launch in early 2027
  - Government contracts and briefings with Pentagon and UK defense stakeholders
  - Growing European defense budgets (e.g., Germany’s €30-35B by 2030)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Purpose-built for defense**: Unlike competitors that repurpose commercial tech, Lodestar designs from the ground up for resilience, responsiveness, and sovereignty in contested orbits.
- **End-to-end protection stack**: The only company offering a unified system from detection to autonomous response, rather than point solutions.
- **AI-first approach**: The core asset is the AI model, not the satellite hardware, allowing rapid adaptation to evolving threats without long hardware cycles.
- **Government trust**: Early backing from UK Space Agency and ESA, plus direct engagement with Pentagon-level customers.

## Strategic Focus
- Launch first on-orbit payload to gather proximity data and validate AI models in space
- Expand partnerships with allied defense agencies and prime contractors
- Scale the team (especially engineering and avionics) to accelerate product development
- Win additional government contracts for operational bodyguard satellite systems

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-driven culture**: Work on one of the most pressing national security challenges – space defense – with a clear, unapologetic mission to deter conflict.
- **Cutting-edge technology**: Tackle hard problems in AI, computer vision, on-board autonomy, and spacecraft systems.
- **Small team, big impact**: 14-person team with flat structure; engineers have direct ownership of critical systems.
- **Growth opportunity**: Rapidly scaling with 8 open roles; chance to shape the company’s technical direction.
- **Locations**: Offices in Los Angeles (HQ) and London, UK; hybrid/remote flexibility likely (based on speculative applications accepted from US and UK).
- **Notable perks**: Work with former engineers from MBDA, Orbex, Airbus Defence & Space, and Imperial College London rocketry teams.

## Sources
1. [Lodestar Space Website](https://www.lodestar.space/)
2. [LinkedIn Company Page](https://www.linkedin.com/company/lodestarspace)
3. [CB Insights Profile](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/lodestar-3)
4. [UKspace Member Profile](https://www.ukspace.org/start-up-member/lodestar-space/)
5. [Resilience Media Interview](https://resiliencemedia.co/lodestar-is-building-satellite-bodyguards/)
6. [Greenhouse Careers Page](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/lodestarspace)

## Other roles at Lodestar

- [Head of Business Development](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-business-development-lodestar-los-angeles-6d1pty1p1mmb) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Senior Technical Bid Writer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-technical-bid-writer-lodestar-los-angeles-s7zg0mx0gbgz) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Software Engineer I or II: State Estimation & Prediction](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-i-or-ii-state-estimation-prediction-lodestar-los-angeles-x94pk8tr5jsg) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Software Engineer I,II,III: Simulations](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-i-ii-iii-simulations-lodestar-los-angeles-nqya82tma539) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Head of Capture and Proposal Operations](https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-capture-and-proposal-operations-lodestar-los-angeles-81ha6p7n0ymq) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Avionics Hardware Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/avionics-hardware-engineer-lodestar-london-v88vfnycw44z) — London, United Kingdom
- [Avionics Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/avionics-software-engineer-lodestar-london-tnxkbb7w530b) — London, United Kingdom
- [Software Engineer II: On-board Autonomy](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-ii-on-board-autonomy-lodestar-los-angeles-ps92yzwddgz3) — Los Angeles, CA