Varda Space
Mechanisms Engineer - Payloads
$105K–$153K
El Segundo, California, United States · Full-time · Posted Sep 17, 2026
- Education
- BS/BEng in Mechanical, Aerospace, Mechatronics, or related engineering discipline
- Visa sponsorship
- Only hires U.S. persons permitted to access the company’s export-controlled technology without an export license.
About the job
Develops and delivers electromechanical payload hardware for spaceflight, pharmaceutical manufacturing, and hypersonic reentry missions, from concept through testing, flight, and recovery.
What you'll do
- Own payload hardware through design, integration, launch, reentry, and recovery; serve as the technical point of contact for assigned payloads.
- Design mechanisms, structures, thermal/fluid interfaces, and electromechanical assemblies; perform structural, thermal, and fluid analyses.
- Build, instrument, and test hardware; coordinate across disciplines, produce engineering documentation, and support mission operations and post-flight teardown.
What they ask for
- BS/BEng in Mechanical, Aerospace, Mechatronics, or a related engineering discipline.
- Strong fundamentals in structures, heat transfer, fluids, and dynamics.
- Hands-on experience designing, integrating, testing, and troubleshooting electromechanical hardware.
- Ability to communicate effectively across disciplines.
Nice to have
- Experience integrating electromechanical actuators, sensors, thermal control hardware, and/or fluid control hardware; CAD (NX preferred) and FEA (Ansys, Nastran).
- Exposure to aerospace environmental testing (vibration, TVAC, EMI/EMC); customer-facing technical communication experience; ability to obtain a government security clearance.
Pay
USD $105,000 - $139,466/per year (base salary); USD $119,543 - $152,749/per year (base salary)
Tools
NX, Ansys, Nastran
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative