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Salary: USD 119,543 - 152,749 / annual
Varda Space Industries is building commercial space infrastructure, including in-orbit pharmaceutical processing systems, reentry capsules, and satellite buses. The Ground Support Equipment Design Engineer II designs, builds, and maintains sophisticated test infrastructure that qualifies spaceflight hardware for orbit.
In this role, you will own the design and development of ground support equipment (GSE) and test systems including propulsion test stands, environmental qualification chambers, and spacecraft-level integration testing. You will work with Varda's modern tech stack, including a custom PLC framework and Beckhoff EtherCAT tooling built in-house. You will have meaningful impact on architecture decisions and the opportunity to define standards that will outlast any single program.
Key responsibilities include:
- Design, build, and maintain test systems and GSE for flight hardware qualification and manufacturing operations
- Integrate with external hardware including thermal vacuum chambers, ovens, chillers, pressure systems, data acquisition hardware, and precision instrumentation
- Develop and extend Varda's internal PLC framework and EtherCAT tooling to support evolving program needs
- Contribute to architecture decisions on real-time control implementation, evaluating PLC-based (TwinCAT 3) versus Linux-based approaches for high-frequency control applications
- Build cabinets, wire panels, and own systems end-to-end from electrical design through commissioning
- Partner with propulsion, avionics, GNC, and manufacturing teams to deliver test infrastructure on aggressive timelines
- Champion sustainable engineering practices that enable new engineers to ramp quickly and maintain production systems reliably
Varda is headquartered in El Segundo, CA with offices in Washington, DC and Huntsville, AL. The company was founded in 2021 by Will Bruey and Delian Asparouhov, backed by investors including Khosla Ventures, Lux Capital, Founders Fund, and General Catalyst. The team includes veterans from SpaceX, Blue Origin, major pharmaceutical companies, and Silicon Valley.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering or related technical field
- 2+ years of industry experience in test automation, controls, and/or industrial automation
- Hands-on experience integrating with industrial hardware over protocols such as EtherCAT, Modbus (TCP/RTU), RS-232/485 serial, or similar communication standards
- Experience with at least one modern PLC ecosystem—ideally Beckhoff TwinCAT 3 with structured text (IEC 61131-3), or demonstrated eagerness to develop deep expertise
- Comfort working across the full stack: designing electrical panels, wiring cabinets, debugging hardware, and writing control software
- Proven ability to thrive in a fast-paced startup environment where priorities shift and end-to-end ownership of problems is expected
PREFERRED SKILLS:
- Strong intuition for when to use real-time PLC code versus higher-level Python orchestration
- Experience working with custom or in-house control frameworks
- Advanced EtherCAT expertise including DC sync, ENI configuration, master implementation, or driver-level work
- Production experience with TwinCAT 3, structured text, and IEC 61131-3 language suite
- Experience designing deterministic, hard real-time control loops with sub-millisecond cycle times
- Familiarity with time-series data acquisition and visualization tools such as Grafana or InfluxDB
- Aerospace experience, particularly in spacecraft testing or GSE development
- Environmental test experience including TVAC, thermal cycling, and vibration testing
- Hands-on experience with high-pressure gas or fluid systems
- Experience developing propulsion test stands or other complex, multi-subsystem test infrastructure
- Familiarity with spacecraft qualification standards and associated documentation requirements
- Experience developing safety-related control systems
Note: This role requires U.S. person status (U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or individual admitted as refugee/granted asylum) due to ITAR export control requirements.
