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Apex manufactures satellite buses (spacecraft platforms) at scale for the commercial space industry. As launch costs decrease and payload demand increases, the company is scaling production of these critical platforms that enable earth observation, communications, and other space-based services.
The Mechanisms Build Engineer will support the development, integration, scaling, and qualification of spacecraft electromechanical hardware with a focus on long-life rotating assemblies and electrically driven mechanism systems. This is a hands-on role that bridges design, manufacturing, and test.
Key responsibilities include:
- Building, integrating, and qualifying spacecraft electromechanical hardware including actuator systems, motor-driven mechanisms, reaction wheels, and deployables
- Developing and executing component and system-level test campaigns for motor-driven spacecraft hardware
- Supporting manufacturing scaling efforts for precision electromechanical components
- Designing test setups, fixtures, instrumentation, and validation approaches for rotating assemblies
- Collaborating with controls, avionics, and software teams to integrate and validate motor drive systems and telemetry interfaces
- Implementing and testing Hall effect sensors, rotary encoders, resolvers, microswitches, potentiometers, and other feedback devices
- Troubleshooting hardware and system-level issues across motors, mechanisms, sensors, and electrical integration
- Supporting environmental testing (vibration, thermal vacuum, shock, lifetime, functional performance)
- Developing manufacturing and test procedures, work instructions, and production validation processes
- Driving root cause investigations and corrective actions during development and production
- Partnering with design and production teams to improve manufacturability and reliability
Required qualifications: B.S. in Mechanical, Aerospace, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, Robotics, or related discipline. 5+ years of hands-on experience building, integrating, testing, or qualifying electromechanical systems or rotating hardware. Experience delivering and testing flight hardware or high-reliability systems. Strong understanding of electric motor-driven systems, actuators, and electromechanical integration. Experience with motor feedback systems and telemetry. Hands-on hardware bring-up, integration, troubleshooting, and test execution skills. Strong mechanical and electrical troubleshooting abilities. Experience developing or supporting manufacturing and test processes for precision hardware. Comfortable in fast-paced environments with high ownership.
Nice-to-have experience includes spacecraft mechanisms, deployables, robotics, landing legs, grid fins, motor drivers, actuator controls, long-life rotating assemblies, environmental qualification testing, and production scaling for flight hardware.
