Matter Intelligence
Early Career Systems Engineer
El Segundo · Posted Sep 15, 2026
About the role
ABOUT MATTER INTELLIGENCE Welcome to Matter, where we are building the future of vision AI: pairing a world-first sensor that sees molecular chemistry, temperature, and 3D shape with a Large World Model that will be the most powerful intelligence engine for the physical world. This system doesn’t just see what something looks like; it understands everything from a single pixel. We call this Superintelligent Vision. Our team has delivered technologies to Mars for NASA/JPL, designed advanced sensors for U.S. Defense, and frontier artificial intelligence systems. We are now building the next generation of space- and airborne-based sensing systems. ABOUT THE ROLE We are seeking an early career Systems Engineer to support the architecture, design, verification, validation, and I&T of air-borne and space-borne remote-sensing systems. This role is intended for an early-career engineer who wants broad, hands-on exposure to real hardware and software that flies while developing strong systems engineering judgment. Working closely with systems engineers, subject matter experts, and subsystem leads, you will help translate mission needs into system architecture, technical requirements, allocations, budgets, internal and external interfaces, trades, and technical risks. You will also help define the verification and validation strategy, support requirements closure, perform system analyses, support integration and test, investigate anomalies, and contribute to mission operations. This is not a requirements-management role. This is true systems engineering, an opportunity to develop an end-to-end technical understanding and learn what it takes to maintain the technical integrity of a complex system. The role emphasizes learning by doing, with increasing responsibility and ownership as you demonstrate sound technical judgment and reliable execution. KEY RESPONSIBILITIES Requirements, Architecture, and System Analysis - Shape mission objectives, science needs, and concepts of operation into coherent system architectures and clear, achievable, and verifiable requirements. - Connect the dots across requirements, functions, interfaces, operating scenarios, assumptions, rationale, and verification maintaining traceability from mission intent through test. - Help establish and evolve the system technical baseline as the architecture matures and new information emerges. - Dig into challenging engineering problems using first-principles analysis, modeling, heritage, test data, and thoughtful treatment of uncertainty while gaining hands-on experience with space and airborne payloads. - Evaluate design changes across the full system, identifying downstream impacts to requirements, interfaces, operations, performance, and verification. Interfaces, Integration, and Verification - Work across optics, electrical, mechanical, thermal, avionics, software, mission operations, and AI&T to define, document, and verify internal and external interfaces. - Support interface-control working groups and maintain interface requirements, agreements, open items, and verification evidence. - Help develop the system verification and validation approach, including verification methods, success criteria, events, configurations, and required evidence. - Support integration planning, test readiness reviews, procedure development, test execution, data review, anomaly resolution, and requirements closure. - Participate directly in hardware bring-up, functional checkout, environmental and performance testing, airborne campaigns, and flight-like operations. - Investigate anomalies by organizing evidence, reproducing failures where practical, evaluating root-cause hypotheses, and tracking corrective actions through closure. - Evaluate test results and operational behavior in the context of the end-to-end system—not solely against individual pass/fail criteria. Technical Leadership and Growth - Prepare clear, concise technical products
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