Apex Space
Lead Electric Propulsion Engineer
$156K–$215K
Los Angeles · On-site · Full-time · Posted Sep 30, 2026
- Experience
- 10+ years of propulsion engineering experience with significant depth in electric propulsion.
- Education
- Bachelor’s degree in aerospace, mechanical, electrical, plasma/propulsion engineering, applied physics, or a related field.
- Visa sponsorship
- Applicants must qualify as a U.S. Person or be able to obtain required U.S. export authorizations.
About the job
Leads the electric propulsion team and owns the development, qualification, production readiness, and delivery of propulsion subsystems for Apex spacecraft.
What you'll do
- Lead and develop the propulsion team and set the subsystem roadmap and technical standards.
- Own subsystem trades, performance, qualification, production readiness, and delivery of flight hardware.
- Coordinate across engineering, production, supply chain, quality, and program teams; support launch and on-orbit investigations.
What they ask for
- Bachelor’s degree in aerospace, mechanical, electrical, plasma/propulsion engineering, applied physics, or a related field.
- 10+ years of propulsion engineering experience with significant depth in electric propulsion.
- Technical experience with electric propulsion systems, including Hall-effect thrusters and interfaces with cathodes, flow control, and PPUs.
- Experience leading engineers or complex technical development and delivering flight propulsion hardware through design, qualification, production, and on-orbit operation.
Nice to have
- Master’s or Ph.D. focused on electric propulsion, plasma physics, or a related field.
- Experience scaling an electric propulsion team or test infrastructure, transitioning hardware to high-rate production, or supporting LEO and GEO missions.
Pay
$156K – $215K USD base salary
Tools
Hall-effect thrusters, cathodes, flow controllers, PPUs, vacuum facilities, diagnostics, SSCMAN 91-710
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative