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Salary: USD 105,000 - 152,749 / annual
Varda Space Industries is building commercial space infrastructure, including in-orbit pharmaceutical processing systems and reentry capsules. The company designs and operates its W-Series vehicles end-to-end, including payloads, capsules, heat shields, and satellite buses.
As a Mechanisms Engineer on the Payload team, you will own electromechanical flight hardware from concept through design, integration, launch, reentry, and recovery. You will develop mechanisms and structures that operate in orbit, survive hypersonic reentry, and return to Earth for inspection and iteration. This is a full-stack role delivering flight hardware for both pharmaceutical manufacturing and hypersonic reentry testbed missions.
Key responsibilities include:
- Own payload hardware across the complete lifecycle: concept, design, integration, launch, reentry, and recovery
- Design mechanisms, structures, thermal/fluid interfaces, and electromechanical assemblies
- Perform structural, thermal, and fluid analyses using hand calculations, simplified models, and FEA
- Build, instrument, and test prototypes and flight hardware
- Collaborate across avionics, software, thermal, systems, and integration teams to define interfaces and ensure compatibility
- Serve as the primary technical point of contact for assigned payloads
- Generate engineering documentation: requirements, interface control documents, procedures, and test reports
- Support mission operations and post-flight teardown and analysis
- Contribute to lessons learned and continuous improvement initiatives
The role is ideal for engineers with strong mechanical fundamentals who want to grow breadth across thermal, fluids, avionics, software, and integration while shipping real hardware to space and back. You will work hands-on with internal specialists and external partners to translate engineering requirements into flight-ready designs and deliver hardware in months, not years.
Varda is headquartered in El Segundo, CA 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 top-tier 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:
Basic Qualifications:
- BS/BEng in Mechanical, Aerospace, Mechatronics, or related engineering discipline
- Strong fundamentals in structures, heat transfer, fluids, and dynamics
- Hands-on experience designing, integrating, testing, and troubleshooting electromechanical hardware
- Ability to communicate effectively across disciplines
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience integrating electromechanical actuators, sensors, thermal control hardware, and/or fluid control hardware
- Experience using CAD (NX preferred) and FEA (Ansys, Nastran)
- Exposure to aerospace environmental testing (vibration, TVAC, EMI/EMC)
- Customer-facing technical communication experience
- Ability to obtain a government security clearance
ITAR Requirement: Must be a U.S. person (U.S. citizen, U.S. lawful permanent resident, or protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3)).
