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Salary: USD 140,333 - 179,314 / annual
Varda Space Industries is accelerating commercial space infrastructure development, from in-orbit pharmaceutical processing to reliable reentry capsules. The company designs, builds, and operates its W-Series vehicles in-house, including pharmaceutical processing payloads, capsules, C-PICA heat shields, and satellite buses. Varda is headquartered in El Segundo, CA, with additional offices in Washington, DC and Huntsville, AL.
The Senior Build Reliability Engineer partners closely with design and manufacturing teams to right-size processes and controls for scaling spacecraft hardware production. This role ensures production processes yield verified, reliable hardware at rate and flexes to support Quality, Flight Reliability, and Mission Assurance functions.
Key responsibilities include:
- Partnering with design engineering and manufacturing teams to create test, manufacturability, and inspection plans for all vehicle hardware
- Containing suspect or non-conforming product and providing guidance to quality inspectors, technicians, shop supervisors, and engineers
- Leading failure investigations in production, test, and operation to identify root causes and mitigate risk
- Providing critical peer review of hardware during design reviews and acceptance/qualification test campaigns
- Performing failure modes and effects analyses, building requirements compliance matrices, and ensuring adequate test coverage and manufacturability of flight hardware
- Owning vehicle-level deliverables for regulatory bodies, including requirements compliance, functional/flight hazard analyses, and verification evidence
- Supporting Mission Assurance's vehicle-level risk management and mitigation tracking
The ideal candidate is a responsible, collaborative, process-oriented engineer with hands-on hardware design, test, manufacturing, and troubleshooting experience.
Note: This role requires ITAR compliance. Varda only hires "U.S. persons" (U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, or individuals admitted as refugees/granted asylum) due to access to export-controlled items.
Requirements:
- Bachelor's degree in aerospace, computer science, electrical, manufacturing, mechanical, or material sciences engineering
- 5+ years professional experience in aerospace, design, quality, or related engineering role
- Hands-on hardware test, qualification, troubleshooting, or failure analysis experience
- Commitment to lean quality principles without compromising safety or reliability
- Demonstrated application of process controls in high-volume manufacturing, test, and quality environments
- Experience generating, processing, and analyzing technical data and documentation
- Hands-on knowledge of CNC machining, additive manufacturing, casting, welding, fastening, or other special manufacturing processes
