Impulse Space
Principal Mechanical Engineer - COPVs
$135K–$215K
Redondo Beach, California · On-site · Principal · Full-time · Posted Oct 28, 2026
- Experience
- 12+ years in composite materials and 12+ years designing and analyzing COPVs, SRMs, or similar.
- Education
- Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or related field; a Master’s degree is preferred.
- Visa sponsorship
- Applicants must be U.S. Persons or eligible to obtain an export license under applicable U.S. export regulations.
About the job
Owns the design, analysis, fabrication, testing, documentation, and integration of flight composite overwrapped pressure vessels (COPVs) and their mounting structures, supporting current and future vehicles.
What you'll do
- Design, analyze, build, test, and document COPVs and mounting structures; develop hardware road maps and automate processes.
- Size COPVs to meet vehicle requirements and coordinate load cases, testing, and qualification with engineering teams.
- Support suppliers and production ramp-up, incorporating manufacturing feedback, design-for-manufacturing, and reliability improvements.
What they ask for
- Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or related field.
- 12+ years’ experience working with composite materials.
- 12+ years demonstrated experience designing and analyzing COPVs, SRMs, or similar.
- Hands-on composite-part fabrication experience; strong structural sizing, materials mechanics, failure-analysis, manufacturing-process, and CAD skills.
Nice to have
- Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or related field.
- Space-flown hardware or spacecraft/launch-vehicle experience; structural testing experience; startup/agile experience; or experience with NX, Teamcenter, Abaqus, and Woundsim.
Pay
$135,000 - $215,000 USD/year base salary
Tools
NX, Teamcenter, Abaqus, Woundsim
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative