Founding Lead Structures Engineer

Founding Lead Structures Engineer

Equity: 0.3% – 1% depending on experience

About Us

We're a stealth team building space hardware at the edge of what's currently possible — high-stakes, flight-grade systems where the engineering bar is unforgiving and the upside is enormous. While we can't share full details yet, our founding and early engineering team includes talent from SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, and Impulse Space, and the group includes people who've pulled off feats almost no one else on Earth has.

Role Overview

We're seeking a Founding Lead Structures Engineer to own the structural architecture and analysis of our spacecraft from first principles: the primary and secondary structure, load paths, and interfaces that carry the vehicle through launch and keep it stable and precise on orbit.

This is a senior technical leadership role. You will not only define and execute the structural architecture, but also help build the structures team, set technical and analysis standards, mentor engineers, and establish the systems, processes, and culture required to develop flight-grade hardware.

This is not a narrow analysis or CAD role. You will own structures end to end: vehicle and subsystem structural architecture, primary and secondary structure, joints and interfaces, structural dynamics, prototyping, environmental test, qualification, and the path to flight production. You will make system-level trades across mass, stiffness, strength, thermal stability, manufacturability, schedule, cost, and mission risk.

The ideal candidate has direct experience with flight structures design, structural analysis, structural dynamics, environmental test, and technical team leadership. We recognize that very few people have all of this. What matters most is that you have exceptional fundamentals, have led real hardware from concept toward flight, have managed or mentored engineers in high-performance technical environments, and can operate independently in ambiguity while making sound engineering tradeoffs. You will have direct ownership over one of the company's core technical challenges.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the structural architecture of flight-grade hardware, from concept through detailed design, prototyping, qualification, integration, and flight.

• Lead the design of primary and secondary structures, joints, structural interfaces, and mechanism support structure optimized for launch loads, vacuum, vibration, shock, thermal cycling, and microgravity.

• Lead trade studies across mass, stiffness, strength, thermal stability, manufacturability, reliability, and cost.

• Own the structural analysis approach: hand calculations, tolerance stack-ups, FEA, margins of safety, fastener and joint analysis, and coupled loads inputs at the component, subsystem, and vehicle levels.

• Develop and maintain test-correlated finite element models of the vehicle, and deliver models and data to launch providers for coupled loads analysis.

• Define requirements, design loads, load paths, interfaces, mass and stiffness budgets, and verification plans at the component, subsystem, and system levels.

• Set the standard for CAD, 2D drawings, GD&T, release packages, interface control documents, and structural analysis reports.

• Plan and lead environmental test campaigns, including static loads, sine and random vibration, shock, modal survey, and thermal vacuum, and drive hardware through qualification and acceptance.

• Build the structural test and integration infrastructure: fixtures, mechanical ground support equipment (MGSE), test stands, and lab capability.

• Build and test prototypes, analyze failures, and drive root-cause resolution and design iteration.

• Establish relationships with machine shops, fabricators, and suppliers, and guide design for manufacturability, assembly, and inspection as hardware moves toward flight production.

• Provide technical leadership across structures, structural analysis, and integration and test efforts.

• Help hire, manage, mentor, and develop structures engineers, analysts, and technicians as the team grows.

• Establish engineering processes: design review standards, analysis review and checking, drawing and release workflows, configuration management, and verification discipline appropriate for flight-grade hardware.

• Work cross-functionally with mechanisms, controls, autonomy, software, avionics, propulsion, thermal, and manufacturing to close interfaces and deliver an integrated flight system.

• Work closely with founders and founding engineers to shape the technical roadmap, engineering culture, hiring plan, and long-term structures strategy.

• Represent the structures function in cross-disciplinary design reviews, customer conversations, investor diligence, vendor discussions, and mission planning as needed.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related discipline.

• 8+ years designing, analyzing, building, and testing structures for spacecraft, launch vehicles, aircraft, or other high-reliability systems.

• Prior experience leading technical workstreams, managing engineers, mentoring junior and mid-level engineers, or building high-performing engineering teams.

• Demonstrated ability to own complex structural systems from early architecture through detailed design, build, test, and qualification.

• Strong fundamentals in structural mechanics, structural sizing, load path design, joint and fastener analysis, and stress analysis of metallic and composite structures.

• Experience developing and executing structural analysis for flight or high-reliability hardware, including static, modal, random vibration, and shock analysis, with documented margins of safety.

• Deep experience with hand calculations, tolerance analysis, and FEA, and the judgment to know which one a problem needs.

• Working knowledge of structural design and verification standards such as NASA-STD-5001 (structural design and test factors) and NASA-STD-5020 (threaded fastening systems).

• Expert proficiency in professional CAD software (NX, CATIA, Creo, SolidWorks, or equivalent).

• Proficiency with GD&T and engineering drawing standards (ASME Y14.5).

• Experience taking hardware beyond the bench into environmental testing such as static loads, vibration, shock, thermal, or vacuum.

• Hands-on experience building, debugging, and testing hardware, with fluency in the shop and the lab.

• Ability to work independently with limited direction, identify the right next problem to solve, and drive technical work from ambiguity to tested hardware.

• Ability to make practical system-level tradeoffs across performance, schedule, cost, reliability, manufacturability, and mission risk.

• Ability to lead through influence in a cross-functional environment spanning mechanisms, controls, software, avionics, propulsion, thermal, and manufacturing.

Highly Valuable Experience

We do not expect every candidate to have all of the following. The strongest candidates will likely have depth in some areas and the ability to quickly learn the others.

• Demonstrated flight heritage: structural hardware you helped design that has flown and operated in space.

• Experience leading structures, structural analysis, mechanisms, or integration and test teams.

• Experience managing engineers in a startup, aerospace company, defense contractor, launch company, or other high-reliability technical environment.

• Experience with multibody dynamics analysis (e.g., Adams, Simscape Multibody, RecurDyn, or equivalent) for deployment sequences, separation events, mechanism kinematics, and flexible-body interactions.

• Experience designing and analyzing mechanisms for space, including deployables, hold-down and release mechanisms, hinges, latches, and actuators, and the structural interfaces between mechanisms and primary structure.

• Familiarity with space mechanism considerations such as tribology, lubrication, cold welding, and contamination control.

• Experience with spacecraft structures, launch vehicle interfaces, separation systems, coupled loads analysis, and delivering test-correlated FEMs to launch providers.

• Experience with structural dynamics, random vibration and shock analysis, modal survey testing, and test-correlated FEA models (e.g., Nastran, Abaqus, ANSYS).

• Experience with fracture control, fatigue analysis, and damage tolerance for flight structures.

• Experience with structural-thermal-optical performance (STOP) analysis or thermoelastic distortion for precision structures.

• Experience with composites, additive manufacturing, or other advanced materials and processes for flight structures.

• Experience integrating electrical components, PCBAs, and harnessing into structural assemblies.

• Experience with requirements verification, formal hardware qualification, and V&V processes, including standards such as GSFC-STD-7000 (GEVS) or SMC-S-016.

• Familiarity with PLM tools and configuration-managed hardware development.

• Experience selecting and managing machine shops, fabricators, and suppliers, and navigating supply chain and material lead times.

• Experience transitioning hardware from prototype to flight production.

• Experience supporting hardware through launch, on-orbit operations, anomaly response, and post-flight reconstruction.

• Experience in early-stage startups, founding teams, or environments where engineers must own broad technical scope.

• Experience recruiting, interviewing, closing, and onboarding exceptional technical talent.

Who You Are

• You are an exceptional structures engineer with experience in demanding, high-reliability hardware environments (e.g., aerospace, launch, defense) and the ability to reason from first principles.

• You are a technical leader who raises the bar for the people around you.

• You have managed, mentored, or led engineers before and know how to create clarity, accountability, and momentum in ambiguous environments.

• You are adept at taking full ownership of structural systems from blank sheet to flight.

• You are comfortable working with high ambiguity, rapidly changing requirements, and limited resources.

• You can move fluidly between hand calcs, FEA, CAD, the shop floor, the test lab, team leadership, and system-level tradeoffs.

• You are not just interested in analyzing parts; you want to see them built, tested, and working in real environments, under real constraints.

• You are excited by flight-grade hardware that has to work the first time.

• You have strong opinions loosely held. You can defend a technical position, accept feedback, change course when the system demands it, and make appropriate tradeoffs in support of the mission.

• You are a collaborative builder who is low-ego, rigorous, and drives technical excellence.

• You want founding-level ownership and are motivated by building a company, not just completing assigned tasks.

• You are excited to help build not only the product, but also the engineering organization behind it.

Why Join Us?

• Build incredibly ambitious, world-first hardware alongside world-class talent.

• Own the structure that carries the entire vehicle from launch through mission.

• Build and lead one of the most important technical functions at the company.

• Define the product, culture, technical standards, and trajectory of a breakthrough company from the start.

• Own significant technical and organizational challenges and create outsized impact.

Benefits

• Health Insurance: We cover the full base premium for Blue Shield's Bronze plan. If you'd like more coverage, you can upgrade to the Gold plan and just cover the difference in premium. You're also welcome to add dependents and a spouse to your plan.

• Dental & Vision: We cover the base premiums for both, through Guardian. Coverage for dependents and a spouse is available too.

• 401(k): We offer a 401(k) with a 4% company match to help you save for the future.

• Equity: You'll receive meaningful equity in the company, so you share in what we build together.

• PTO & Sick Time: We offer unlimited PTO and sick time, and we trust you to take the time you need to rest and recharge.

ITAR / Citizenship Requirements

To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.