SlipstreamJobs tracks this role from the company's public career site. Apply directly on the employer's site.
Salary: USD 145,000 - 205,000 / annual
Inversion Space is an aerospace and defense company pioneering advanced reentry technology. The company designs, manufactures, and integrates sophisticated reentry spacecraft (Arc) for rapid global cargo delivery, hypersonic testing, and national security missions. Backed by Y Combinator, Spark Capital, and Lockheed Martin Ventures, Inversion operates from Los Angeles with an integrated design-to-manufacturing capability.
As Technical Program Manager II for Reentry Systems, you will own end-to-end program execution for a major reentry system development program, spanning requirements definition through design, analysis, manufacturing, qualification, production, and delivery. This is a deeply technical leadership role requiring you to work directly with multidisciplinary engineering teams while serving as a primary interface to the customer.
You will be accountable for translating mission requirements into executable technical plans, driving engineering decisions and trades, identifying and retiring risk, and ensuring delivery of sophisticated flight hardware on schedule. You will operate at the intersection of engineering, manufacturing, program execution, and customer needs—not simply tracking schedules but leveraging technical depth to understand the system, challenge assumptions, identify issues early, and drive teams toward decisions.
Key responsibilities include: owning the integrated technical plan across structures, mechanisms, thermal protection systems, aerothermal analysis, GNC, avionics, propulsion, manufacturing, and test; partnering with engineering leads to define the technical path and resolve cross-functional issues; driving development and closure of system requirements, interfaces, and verification plans; leading program planning including schedules, milestones, dependencies, and critical path; leading major technical and program reviews; working with manufacturing and production teams on design transition and production readiness; driving hardware through build, integration, environmental testing, and qualification; serving as primary technical and programmatic interface with the customer; translating evolving customer needs into actionable requirements while communicating constraints and tradeoffs; maintaining configuration and execution discipline; identifying and mitigating technical, schedule, manufacturing, and supply-chain risks; coordinating multidisciplinary teams around clear priorities; and supporting proposals and follow-on opportunities.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related technical discipline
- 7+ years of experience developing and delivering complex aerospace, defense, or similarly demanding hardware systems
- Strong mechanical engineering foundation with demonstrated experience on complex, tightly coupled hardware systems (not isolated components)
- Experience taking sophisticated hardware through multiple lifecycle phases: requirements definition, analysis, design, manufacturing, integration, test, qualification, and production
- Demonstrated ability to understand and engage deeply in mechanical design and analysis (structural mechanics, thermal environments, materials, mechanisms, loads, manufacturing processes, tolerances, hardware integration)
- Experience leading multidisciplinary technical teams through challenging development programs with aggressive schedules
- Proven ability to identify critical technical issues, challenge assumptions, drive decisions, and bring ambiguous problems to closure
- Experience developing and managing integrated program schedules, technical milestones, dependencies, risks, and execution plans
- Experience working directly with external customers, preferably U.S. government or defense customers, on complex technical programs
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills for engineers, leadership, suppliers, and senior customer stakeholders
- Comfortable taking ownership in fast-paced environment with limited resources, evolving requirements, and significant individual responsibility
- Must have ability to obtain and maintain U.S. government Secret/Top Secret security clearance
DESIRED QUALIFICATIONS:
- Direct experience developing reentry vehicles, hypersonic systems, spacecraft, launch vehicles, missiles, or other high-performance aerospace systems in severe environments
- Experience with thermal protection systems, high-temperature materials, ceramics, ablatives, composites, refractory materials
- Experience with aerothermal environments, high-temperature structures, aeroshells, structural dynamics, or hypersonic vehicle design
- Experience owning a vehicle, major subsystem, or complex mechanical system from early development through flight or operational deployment
- Experience transitioning advanced aerospace hardware from development into low-rate or recurring production
- Experience with qualification and acceptance testing of flight hardware (structural, thermal, vibration, shock, environmental, integrated system testing)
- Experience with government development programs, technical reviews, verification and validation, and formal customer deliverables
- Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related technical field
- Prior experience in fast-paced startup or small, highly accountable engineering organization
- Existing active U.S. Secret or Top Secret security clearance
