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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 payloads to heat shields to satellite buses, with a mission to expand the economic bounds of humankind through orbital manufacturing.
The Automation and Controls Engineer II designs, builds, and maintains sophisticated ground support equipment (GSE) and test systems that qualify spaceflight hardware for orbit. This includes propulsion test stands, environmental qualification chambers, and spacecraft-level integration testing infrastructure. The role owns these systems end-to-end, from electrical design through commissioning and operation.
Key responsibilities include:
- Design and build 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 using Beckhoff TwinCAT 3
- Contribute to architecture decisions on real-time control implementation, evaluating PLC-based versus Linux-based approaches
- Build electrical cabinets and wire panels, owning systems from design through commissioning
- Partner with propulsion, avionics, GNC, and manufacturing teams to deliver test infrastructure on aggressive timelines
- Champion sustainable engineering practices to enable team ramp-up and system reliability
Required qualifications: Bachelor's degree in Electrical, Computer, or Mechanical Engineering (or related field); 2+ years in test automation, controls, or industrial automation; hands-on experience integrating industrial hardware over EtherCAT, Modbus, RS-232/485, or similar protocols; experience with modern PLC ecosystems (ideally Beckhoff TwinCAT 3 with IEC 61131-3); comfort across the full stack (control software, electrical design, wiring, debugging); proven ability to thrive in fast-paced startup environments with shifting priorities and end-to-end ownership.
Preferred: expertise in real-time PLC versus Python orchestration tradeoffs; experience with custom in-house control frameworks; advanced EtherCAT skills (DC sync, ENI configuration, master implementation); production TwinCAT 3 experience; deterministic hard real-time control loops with sub-millisecond cycle times; time-series data acquisition tools (Grafana, InfluxDB); aerospace or spacecraft testing experience; environmental test experience (TVAC, thermal cycling, vibration); high-pressure gas systems experience.
