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Salary: USD 105,000 - 180,000 / 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 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 Structures Engineer will support the design, analysis, testing, and integration of structural components for spaceflight systems and reentry vehicles. This is a hands-on role working alongside experienced aerospace engineers on real hardware in a fast-paced environment.
Key Responsibilities:
- Derive hardware requirements and perform initial design trades given open-ended problem statements and stakeholder input
- Evaluate the impact of hardware design decisions on packaging, thermal, environmental, and loads to ensure optimal system-level solutions
- Own all aspects of hardware delivery, both technical and administrative
- Use hand calculations, finite element analyses, and CAD to ensure hardware meets or exceeds requirements
- Design and execute development and qualification testing
- Develop tooling to support hardware integration and testing
Requirements:
- Bachelor's degree in a relevant engineering discipline with 1+ years of experience in related applications (structures for automotive, aircraft, spacecraft, etc.)
- Strong first principles thinking with understanding of structural design, analysis, and test
- Ability to perform structural analyses to demonstrate design compliance (hand calculations, Ansys, Femap, Nastran, etc.)
- Familiarity with 3D CAD software, ideally NX
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Eagerness to learn and work on hands-on hardware projects
Preferred Skills:
- Experience with aerospace hardware development practices from concept to delivery (qualification testing, design for space environments, cleanliness standards)
- Programming experience (Python, Matlab)
- Hands-on assembly, fabrication, and machining of metallic parts
- Familiarity with PLM software, ideally Teamcenter
