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K2 Space is building the largest and highest-power satellites ever flown, backed by $450M in funding from leading investors including Altimeter Capital, Redpoint Ventures, and T. Rowe Price. The company is mass-producing advanced satellite platforms for missions from low Earth orbit to deep space, capitalizing on the era of heavy-lift launch vehicles and mass abundance.
As a Mechanical Design Engineer focused on Propulsion, you will own the mechanical design and development of a next-generation electric propulsion system—the highest-powered system ever flown. You will work within a small multidisciplinary team on the full lifecycle of propulsion hardware, from concept through flight qualification and on-orbit operation.
In your first six months, you will define product requirements, develop initial concepts and trade studies, perform preliminary and detailed mechanical analysis, define development test campaigns, and produce development hardware. Over your first year, you will validate designs through prototype iterations and build and qualify flight-ready hardware. Within two years, you will see your hardware flying in space while supporting production integration.
Key responsibilities include owning mechanical design of propulsion modules, critical thruster components, propellant management systems, avionics boxes, secondary structures, and potentially tank development. You will generate 3D CAD models, fully dimensioned drawings, and interface control documents. You will perform analysis on test data, iterate designs, and make critical go/no-go decisions on hardware performance. You will develop and execute component and system-level test plans, manage key propulsion vendors and suppliers, and support the entire validation lifecycle from concept to production to successful flight demonstration.
This is an opportunity to contribute to a groundbreaking Series C space startup with multiple launches planned through 2026 and 2027, working on hardware that will enable deep-space exploration and new mission concepts.
