Mission Operations Engineer - New Grad (Summer 2027)

About Nominal

Engineers today are building some of the most ambitious machines humanity has ever seen. They should have AI that’s purpose-built for them.

Nominal is building the Hardware Intelligence Platform that gives engineers increased visibility into complex physical systems, helps them make better decisions, and ultimately gets their products into the real world faster. It brings together the systems, data, intelligence, and applications hardware engineering requires to meet the AI moment. Hardware engineering teams use Nominal to simulate, test, manufacture, and operate the physical systems that keep the world moving, from spacecraft and autonomous vehicles to next-generation energy systems and robotics.

Our customers span aerospace, defense, manufacturing, transportation, energy, and robotics. They include Anduril, Shield AI, Wisk Aero, Pratt Miller Motorsports, Antares, and Shinkei Systems, amongst others, alongside programs within the U.S. Air Force and Navy. Our team draws from SpaceX, Palantir, Anduril, Applied Intuition, Tesla, and other leading companies, united by a common mission: giving hardware engineers the tools to build the future with speed, safety, and confidence.

We're a fast-moving team that owns problems end-to-end, works across disciplines, and thrives at the intersection of hardware and software.

Some of the world’s leading technology investors, including Sequoia, Lightspeed, Founders Fund, General Catalyst, Lux Capital, and Insight Partners, are backing Nominal’s ambition to change how machines are built and operated. We’re looking for engineers who want to take on hard problems and help make a new generation of world-changing hardware possible.

Mission Operations

We’re looking for students with solid engineering fundamentals on track to graduate in Summer 2027 or sooner.

As a Mission Ops Engineer, you'll be the person on the ground helping customers deploy Nominal's platform into their test and operations environments — propulsion test stands, satellite mission ops, flight test, and similar high-stakes settings. You'll train users, troubleshoot issues in real time, and build the relationships that turn a deployment into a long-term partnership.

🚀 What you’ll do

Own the outcome

for a set of customer accounts: run discovery to understand their test problems, align internal and external stakeholders, and deliver solutions that stick, on time and on target

Deploy and integrate

write code to ingest and normalize customer data from test stands, DAQs, telemetry streams, and other hardware sources, and build the pipelines and automations that turn that data into decisions

• Build custom apps, dashboards, and workflows
• on Nominal's platform for each customer's specific needs
• Build trusted relationships
• with everyone from front line engineers and operators to senior executives, and train their teams as they bring Nominal into daily use
• Debug issues across the stack
• in real time, and know when to solve something yourself versus pull in the broader team
• Be the bridge

between customers and Nominal's product and engineering teams: translate customer needs and critical dependencies into solutions, and turn patterns you see across customers into clear product input

🎯 We'd love to hear from you if...

You're graduating in Summer 2027 or sooner and are interested in a full-time position

You have hands-on experience with hardware systems — test stands, robotics, aerospace, automotive, medical devices, energy systems, or similar — through internships, personal projects, research, or coursework

You can write code (Python or similar) to work with real-world data, whether that's parsing sensor logs, building data pipelines, or automating analysis to turn data into decisions

You're intellectually curious and think in systems: you see the big picture, still sweat the details, and have a strong intuition for the math and physics behind the hardware

You communicate clearly and honestly, in writing and in person, and can explain technical ideas to everyone from front line engineers to senior executives, including people who aren't engineers

• You bring humility, eagerness to learn, and empathy, and you lift the people around you. You don't just spot problems; you solve them
• You're comfortable working through open-ended problems in unfamiliar environments, and you can take a technical concept from planning through deployment
• You're willing to travel occasionally to be on-site with customers
• You have a genuine interest in hardware testing and the industries Nominal serves
• ⚡ Bonus
• Experience with data acquisition or hardware tools (DAQs, LabVIEW, MATLAB/Simulink) or data tools (SQL, Python, Pandas, Grafana)
• Experience deploying technical software or data products into real-world workflows, whether through an internship, co-op, or capstone project
• Prior customer-facing, account management, technical support, or project management experience
• Currently hold, or are eligible to obtain, a U.S. government security clearance
• ✨ Benefits/Perks
• 100% coverage of medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Unlimited PTO and sick leave
• Free lunch, snacks, and coffee
• Professional Development Stipend
• 🛠️ In-office hardware lab with a $250 project stipend
• Annual company retreat

ITAR Requirements

To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here

Department: Mission Operations