Apex Space
Staff Electric Propulsion Engineer, Hall-Effect Thrusters
$165K–$226K
Los Angeles · On-site · Staff · Full-time · Posted Sep 25, 2026
- Experience
- 10+ years of relevant electric propulsion experience with a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree, OR a Ph.D. in a relevant field with 3+ years of relevant industry experience; substantial Hall-effect thruster focus required.
- Education
- Bachelor’s degree in aerospace, mechanical, electrical, plasma/propulsion engineering, applied physics, or a related field. Alternatively, a Ph.D. in electric propulsion, plasma physics, applied physics, or a closely related field is specified for the experience alternative.
- Visa sponsorship
- Applicants must qualify as a U.S. Person or be able to obtain required U.S. export authorizations.
About the job
Owns Hall-effect thruster design and development from plasma physics through qualification, spacecraft integration, and scalable production, while providing technical leadership for Apex’s electric propulsion capability.
What you'll do
- Lead thruster design, performance modeling, and test and life-qualification campaigns.
- Integrate thrusters with cathodes, propellant feed systems, power processing units, and spacecraft; support flight hardware and on-orbit operations.
- Optimize designs for performance and production, investigate failures, and mentor propulsion engineers.
What they ask for
- Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field; the posting also accepts a Ph.D. under the experience alternative below.
- Deep hands-on knowledge of Hall thruster physics and design, including channel, magnetic circuit, gas distribution, cathode coupling, and thermal management.
- Experience planning and executing EP or Hall thruster vacuum tests, including diagnostics, performance measurement, and life or wear testing.
- Technical leadership, spacecraft propulsion architecture knowledge, and ability to communicate across engineering disciplines.
Nice to have
- Direct experience taking a Hall thruster from clean-sheet design through flight qualification and on-orbit operation.
- Experience with alternative propellants, plasma simulation tools, magnetic FEA, or design for high-rate production.
Pay
$165K – $226K USD base salary
Tools
Hall-effect thrusters, particle-in-cell, hybrid codes, magnetic FEA, PPU
AI focus
Develop work instructions, process flows, and AI&T procedures for production at rate.
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative