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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, from satellite buses to heat shields to processing payloads.
As Senior Automation and Controls Engineer, you will design, build, and own sophisticated ground support equipment (GSE) and test systems that qualify spaceflight hardware for orbit. This includes propulsion test stands, environmental qualification chambers, spacecraft-level integration testing, and more. You'll work with a modern stack featuring a custom PLC framework and Beckhoff EtherCAT tooling built in-house.
Key responsibilities:
- Design, build, and maintain test systems and GSE for flight hardware qualification and manufacturing operations
- Integrate with diverse external hardware: thermal vacuum chambers, ovens, chillers, pressure systems, data acquisition hardware, and precision instrumentation
- Develop and extend Varda's internal PLC framework and EtherCAT tooling
- Contribute to architecture decisions on real-time control implementation, evaluating PLC-based (TwinCAT 3) versus Linux-based approaches
- Build cabinets, wire panels, and own systems end-to-end from electrical design through commissioning
- Partner with propulsion, avionics, GNC, and manufacturing teams to deliver test infrastructure on aggressive timelines
- Champion sustainable engineering practices that enable rapid onboarding and reliable production system maintenance
Required qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related technical field
- 5+ years of industry experience in test automation, controls, and/or industrial automation
- Hands-on experience integrating industrial hardware over EtherCAT, Modbus (TCP/RTU), RS-232/485 serial, or similar protocols
- Experience with at least one modern PLC ecosystem, ideally Beckhoff TwinCAT 3 with structured text (IEC 61131-3)
- Full-stack comfort: writing control software, designing electrical panels, wiring cabinets, debugging hardware
- Proven ability to thrive in fast-paced startup environments with shifting priorities and end-to-end ownership expectations
Preferred experience includes advanced EtherCAT expertise, production TwinCAT 3 experience, deterministic hard real-time control loops (sub-millisecond cycle times), time-series data acquisition tools (Grafana, InfluxDB), aerospace testing or GSE development, and environmental test experience (TVAC, thermal cycling, vibration testing).
