Chief of Staff to the CTO

Northwoodspace seeks a Chief of Staff to the CTO in Torrance, CA to serve as a key operational leader and strategic partner to our engineering organization. As we expand our space infrastructure capabilities, we need an accomplished executive coordinator to amplify our CTO's impact and keep complex technical initiatives moving with clarity and momentum.

What This Role Involves

You'll operate at the intersection of technical leadership, operational execution, and organizational strategy. Northwoodspace builds and deploys advanced communications infrastructure for satellite missions that power national security, global connectivity, and disaster response. This role is your chance to directly influence how our engineering teams coordinate, prioritize, and deliver impact across a vertically integrated space technology company. You'll be the connective force that transforms our technical vision into executable plans and maintains alignment as we scale.

What You'll Do

• Advise the CTO on technical priorities and strategic direction through rigorous analysis and cross-functional perspective
• Lead complex, multi-team initiatives to completion with clear ownership, sequencing, and accountability
• Represent engineering leadership priorities across the company and maintain alignment in key business forums
• Work with engineering leads to balance resource allocation between product delivery and technical excellence
• Establish and maintain clear ownership of major engineering projects and execution visibility
• Design and manage lightweight operating cadences—planning cycles, roadmap reviews, and weekly execution checkpoints
• Synthesize progress updates, surface risks and dependencies, and communicate clearly to leadership
• Foster structured communication and alignment across engineering, product, and business development
• Steward the development of long-term technical and product roadmaps
• Connect engineering execution with business and customer needs
• Highlight critical tradeoffs and constraints to support informed decision-making

Skills & Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in engineering or related technical discipline
• 5+ years in technical program management, engineering, product operations, or comparable roles
• Proven ability to coordinate work across multiple engineering teams on complex initiatives
• Strong organizational discipline and ability to thrive in ambiguous environments
• Experience as a trusted information hub for senior technical leaders
• Systems thinking and capability to reason through dependencies and technical tradeoffs
• Ability to drive clarity, alignment, and momentum without formal authority
• Ownership mindset and bias toward action—identifying gaps and filling them

Working at Northwoodspace

We offer competitive base salary determined by your experience and qualifications, equity in the form of stock options or other long-term incentives, and potential performance bonuses. Benefits include comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage; a 401(k) retirement plan; disability and life insurance; paid parental leave; and generous paid time off. This is a full-time position based in Torrance, California. Due to ITAR regulations governing space technology, you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or otherwise authorized to work on U.S. space technology projects.

How to Apply

To apply, complete your application directly on this page, or you'll be redirected to the employer's application platform to finish submitting there.