Formerly worked for an ESA subcontractor, I was paid about the same as during my Ph.D., so not particularly great. Mostly did it out of interest and because it looked good on my resume. Switched industries and my salary increased by about 30% overnight. About a year later I was already at 50% more than when I worked there, and had a far better benefits package. So that salary seems quite wrong to me.

But as to the work itself, fun job contents, technically very challenging, but a horrible work environment due to agency politics and questionable management policies at many of the defence contractors out there. For example, as an engineer you don't particularly enjoy being entangled in drawn out politically-driven discussions, but that's the position you end up in when you make choices about hardware procurement in those projects. And then you got to deal with folks asking the most ridiculous questions imaginable for hours on end to try to make you sway, and you can't lose your temper at any point during said question rounds, and after months of that you can finally use the technically correct solution. It's bloody atrocious to deal with and the two years I spent in that industry noticeably aged me, it makes dealing with academics who have a rod stuck up their arse look like a relaxing day on the beach by comparison.

And then we haven't gotten into the sunken cost fallacies inherent in these projects, etc.