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Varda Space Industries is building commercial space infrastructure, including in-orbit pharmaceutical processing vehicles, reentry capsules, and heat shields. As Launch and Recovery Engineering Manager, you will own the launch vehicle mechanical and electrical interface and capsule recovery operations for Varda's W-Series vehicles as the company scales to 12+ missions per year.
This is a people management role reporting to the VP of W-Series Vehicles. You will build and lead a team of launch and recovery engineers, with responsibilities including hiring, mentoring, performance management, and career development as the organization grows. You will set individual goals, conduct reviews, and foster a high-performance team culture.
Key technical responsibilities include defining launch vehicle interface requirements through design reviews (Design Criteria, Preliminary Design, Critical Design), serving as the primary responsible engineer for all technical and regulatory contract deliverables under Launch Services Agreements (LSA), and chairing biweekly meetings with launch providers to ensure contractual compliance. You will manage anomaly investigations and corrective actions impacting LSA deliverables, coordinate with mission assurance, and oversee environmental testing.
You will manage execution of all launch site integration and test procedures for each mission, leading cross-disciplinary teams and handling parallel processing of multiple vehicles. You will develop capsule recovery concepts of operations, plans, and procedures, and directly participate in recovery operations at test ranges including the Australian Koonibba facility and future recovery sites.
You will work with executive leadership to scale launch and recovery planning for the expected cadence of 12+ vehicles annually, implementing team structures and standardizing interfaces and contract deliverables across multiple launch providers. The role requires detailed system-level technical analysis and coordination across subsystem engineering, mission operations, and senior leadership.
Varda is headquartered in El Segundo with additional offices in Washington, DC and Huntsville, AL. The company was founded in 2021 by Will Bruey and Delian Asparouhov and is backed by Khosla Ventures, Lux Capital, Founders Fund, and other top-tier investors.
