Solutions Architect, Kepler

• Bachelor’s degree in a STEM field or related discipline
• 5+ years of experience in satellite communications or aerospace systems, preferably including optical communications
• Strong proficiency in spacecraft system-level analysis, requirements development, and payload accommodation/integration trades
• Hands-on experience across multiple domains (e.g., RF systems, optical communications, spacecraft avionics, networking, mission design, or ground segment architecture)
• Strong understanding of spacecraft accommodation constraints, including structural, thermal, power, and field-of-view considerations for hosted payloads
• Experience performing payload integration trades and optimizing accommodation based on mission CONOPS and spacecraft attitude dynamics
• Strong modeling and simulation skills
• Experience with CAD tools (e.g., SolidWorks, NX, Fusion 360) for spacecraft or payload layout, interface definition, and accommodation visualization
• Experience developing customer-facing technical materials, preferably in aerospace technical sales or mission engineering contexts
• Experience with requirements development, CONOPS definition, and end-to-end system architecture
• Ability to evaluate and defend technical trade-offs with data and sound engineering judgment
• Familiarity with commercial and government aerospace procurement and proposal processes
• Strong written and verbal communication skills

Desirable

• Kepler Communications is seeking a Solutions Architect to partner with the Sales team, engage with customers to understand their mission needs, and develop tailored technical solutions
• The Solutions Architect serves as the primary customer-facing technical point of contact
• As part of a small, passionate, and accomplished team, you will contribute to the strategic development of Kepler’s offerings, customer relationships, and long-term vision—laser-focused on delivering connectivity infrastructure for the space economy
• The ideal candidate has experience working with government and commercial customers, can synthesize complex technical requirements, and translate them into feasible, high-impact mission architectures aligned with Kepler’s capabilities
• Support customer meetings and provide architectural guidance and technical recommendations to promote Kepler offerings
• Create and deliver customer-facing presentations and white papers to shape future opportunities, including technical risk identification, mitigation strategies, and recommendations for novel mission concepts
• Develop feasibility assessments and back-of-the-envelope analyses to rapidly evaluate new mission concepts and customer requests, including high-level systems analysis, CONOPS simulations, and spacecraft accommodations
• Own customer mission architecture trades across RF, optical, networking, link budgets, payload accommodations, spacecraft hardware/software interfaces, and ground systems; work hands-on with modeling tools (STK, MATLAB/Python, RF tools, optical link analysis) to quantify performance and validate concepts, including first-principles assessment of spacecraft accommodation constraints (structural, thermal, power, and field-of-view) to inform payload integration and mission feasibility
• Optimize payload accommodation and mission architectures based on customer CONOPS, orbital parameters, and spacecraft attitude profiles, balancing performance, constraints, and system-level trade-offs
• Serve as the technical integrator between customer needs and internal engineering teams, ensuring solutions are technically executable and aligned with product roadmap
• Support early-phase system engineering activities, including requirements decomposition, interface definition, and preliminary architecture baselining
• Lead technical writing of proposals, RFP/RFI responses, and other customer communications, translating ambiguous requests into clear engineering problem statements and solution pathways
• Conduct competitive (black-hat) analyses to guide capture strategy and stay current with industry trends and emerging disruptors