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Cowboy Space Corp., founded in 2024 by Baiju Bhatt (Robinhood co-founder) and backed by leading investors, is building orbital infrastructure to power and connect the space economy. The company operates satellites in Low Earth Orbit for energy collection, on-orbit compute, and high-bandwidth optical data transmission via infrared lasers.
As Mechanical Engineer for Deployable Radiators, you will own the end-to-end structural design and integration of large deployable radiator systems that reject heat from on-orbit compute payloads and integrate the spacecraft's liquid cooling loop. This is a hands-on, structures-first role requiring ownership from concept through flight qualification and on-orbit deployment.
Key responsibilities include: designing radiator panels to survive demanding launch/ascent loads while stowed and deploy reliably into a flat radiating surface on orbit; performing structural analysis across the full mission profile (quasi-static and random vibration loads, deployed-state dynamics); driving design-for-manufacturing including joining/bonding methods and supplier coordination; designing deployment mechanisms (hinges, latches, release devices) and load-carrying interfaces; analyzing deployment kinematics, mechanism loads, restraint release, and reliability; integrating radiator panels with liquid cooling loops and performing thermal design (heat rejection, fin efficiency, thermal gradients); designing and operating ground testbeds and dev rigs to validate deployment and de-risk flight design; developing and executing deployment, structural, vibration, thermal-vacuum, and qualification test programs; authoring technical documentation (drawings, ICDs, analysis reports, test procedures); diagnosing and resolving structural, mechanism, and thermal anomalies; and partnering across thermal, structures, propulsion, power, avionics, and software teams.
Required qualifications: BS/MS in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering; 3+ years designing and analyzing lightweight structures and mechanical hardware in aerospace or high-performance environments; strong fundamentals in strength, stiffness, buckling, and bonded/mechanically fastened joints; hands-on mechanism design experience (hinges, latches, springs, release devices) or large structural assemblies; FEA proficiency for static, modal, and dynamic analysis; experience taking hardware from concept through build and test with hands-on integration/test; CAD proficiency (NX, SolidWorks, or similar); and experience in fast-paced, hardware-focused development.
Preferred: direct deployable structures experience (radiators, solar arrays, antennas, booms); space environment design background (thermal, vibration, vacuum); bonded/welded assembly and sheet-metal/machined fabrication experience; airframe or launch-vehicle primary-structure experience with significant ascent loads; radiator/thermal-control design and thermal-fluid coupling knowledge; aerospace standards familiarity (MIL-SPEC, NASA-STD, ECSS); hands-on prototyping and deployment test rig experience; and startup/early-stage hardware experience with comfort in technical ambiguity.
