Vast is developing next-generation space stations and space infrastructure using an incremental, hardware-rich, and low-cost approach. Vast is rapidly developing its multi-module Haven Station to ensure a continuous human presence in space for America and its allies, enabling advanced microgravity research and manufacturing, and unlocking a new space economy for government, corporate, and private customers. Haven Demo’s 2025 success made Vast the only operational commercial space station company to fly and operate its own spacecraft. Next, Haven-1 is expected to become the world’s first commercial space station when it launches in 2027, followed by additional Haven modules. Additionally, the company recently announced Vast Satellite, a high-power satellite product line leveraging its space station components and the heritage of Haven Demo.

Headquartered in Long Beach, California, and with more than 1,000 employees and over a billion dollars in private capital, Vast has built the facilities required to manufacture and operate America’s next space station. The company plans to develop future habitats and systems for the Moon and Mars, dedicated space stations for government partners, and other crewed systems that will unlock the expanding long-term space economy.

Vast is looking for a Manufacturing Coordinator reporting to the Manager, Manufacturing Operations, to support Haven-1 Manufacturing. This role is responsible for coordinating, ensuring material delivery meets with schedule timelines. You’ll be working cross-functionally with manufacturing, engineering, procurement, and quality assurance teams to maintain production flow and resolve any blockers proactively.

This will be a full-time, non-exempt position located in our Long Beach location.

Client Groups:

Fluid Systems Manufacturing
Integration
Avionics Manufacturing

Shift hours:

First Shift: 5am - 2:30pm
Second Shift: 2pm - 10:30pm

Responsibilities:

Oversee, monitor, and facilitate the movement of components throughout the manufacturing process to ensure timely progression through our Vast locations.
Coordinate the physical transfer of components across various stages including purchasing, receiving inspection, inventory, and relevant work centers.
Coordinate outside processing of components and liaise with the purchasing team to ensure timely delivery.
Support logistics operations by optimizing workflow staging as necessary.
Maintain accuracy and integrity of system data in collaboration with Supply Chain, Engineering, and Manufacturing teams to align with demands and schedules.
Generate and maintain reports highlighting requirements, milestones, and limitations for internal and external stakeholders.
Collaborate with schedulers, and managers to fulfill action requirements.
Communicate effectively and escalate issues promptly across various platforms and to specific stakeholders.
Escalate issues such as part shortages, purchase order delays, and discrepancies in BOM to relevant departments.
Collaborate with engineers and the planning team on the release of runs.
Follow schedules through effective planning and shortage management coordination.

Minimum Qualifications:

2+ years in a manufacturing environment.

Preferred Skills & Experience:

2+ years of experience with MRP/ERP systems (SAP, Oracle, etc.)
2+ years of Smartsheet.
Highly detail oriented and self starter.
Forklift experience.

Additional Requirements:

Willingness to work evenings and/or weekends to support critical mission milestones.
Ability to lift up to 25lbs unassisted.

Pay Range:

Manufacturing Coordinator I: $19.00 - $25.00
Manufacturing Coordinator II: $22.00 - $30.00
Senior Manufacturing Coordinator: $28.00 - $38.00

Pay Range: California

$19—$38 USD

We calibrate level and compensation to the selected candidate's experience and demonstrated capability. We welcome applicants across a range of experience levels to apply.

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

Base salary will vary depending on job-related knowledge, education, skills, experience, business needs, and market demand. Salary is just one component of our comprehensive compensation package. Full-time employees also receive company equity, as well as access to a full suite of compelling benefits and perks, including: medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents, generous paid time off; up to 20+ days of vacation for exempt staff and up to 10+ days of vacation for non-exempt staff with the ability to cash-out unused vacation annually, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability insurance, life insurance, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, ClassPass credits, personalized mental healthcare through Spring Health, and other discounts and perks. We also take pride in offering exceptional food perks, with snacks, drip coffee & onsite barista, cold drinks, and dinner meals remaining free of charge, and lunch subsidized as part of Vast’s ongoing commitment to providing high-quality meals for employees.

U.S. EXPORT CONTROL COMPLIANCE STATUS

The person hired will have access to information and items subject to U.S. export controls, and therefore, must either be a “U.S. person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.62 or otherwise eligible for deemed export licensing. This status includes U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, lawful permanent residents (green card holders), and asylees and refugees with such status granted, not pending.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

Vast is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Vast is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

Pay Range: California 19 - 38 USD

About the company

Vast Space builds artificial gravity space stations to enable long-term human life in space. Its approach uses large rotating habitats that generate centrifugal force to mimic Earth's gravity, helping astronauts stay healthy during extended missions. The company designs, tests, demonstrates, services, and manufactures space infrastructure and customizable habitat modules for government space agencies, private aerospace companies, and research institutions that operate in lunar, Martian, or deep-space missions. Unlike others, Vast Space focuses on end-to-end artificial gravity solutions and ongoing support, not just concepts, and targets contracts that provide sustainable space habitats for science, exploration, and colonization efforts. The overall goal is to expand humanity’s reach across the solar system by creating scalable, gravity-enabled habitats that enable safe, long-term presence in space while protecting Earth's ecosystem.

Company Size

501-1,000

Company Stage

Series A

Total Funding

$500M

Headquarters

Long Beach, California

Founded

2021

Get referred to VAST

See people who can refer or advise you

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

March 2026 funding from Balerion, QIA, Mitsui, and IQT extends runway.
California awarded $87 million for Long Beach expansion, targeting 657 new jobs.
New ESA, UK, and LambdaVision agreements create early demand before Haven-1 launches.

What critics are saying

August 2026 layoffs exposed execution pressure after March's $500 million financing.
Haven-1 slipped from 2025 to Q1 2027, threatening customer confidence and fundraising.
If NASA's commercial LEO awards disappoint, Vast's ISS-replacement thesis loses its anchor.

What makes VAST unique

Vast vertically integrates stations in Long Beach, targeting commercial and national-security customers.
Haven-1 is the first commercial station with SpaceX launch and Dragon crew transport.
European governments chose Vast for astronaut seats, validating its mission-selling model.

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Benefits

Health Insurance

Dental Insurance

Vision Insurance

Life Insurance

Disability Insurance

Unlimited Paid Time Off

Paid Vacation

Parental Leave

401(k) Retirement Plan

Company Equity

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

↑ 8%

1 year growth

↑ 0%

2 year growth

↑ 8%

Cosmic Herald

Sep 10th, 2026

ESA and Vast Agree to Fly Greece's First Astronaut to the ISS.

ESA and Vast Agree to Fly Greece's First Astronaut to the ISS. ESA and commercial station firm Vast signed an agreement in Paris to fly Greek flight surgeon Adrianos Golemis to the ISS in 2027, pending medical certification, aboard a mission commanded by Thomas Pesquet. 2026-09-10 · By Cosmic Herald Staff Greece is set to send its first astronaut to space. At the International Space Summit in Paris on September 9, 2026, the European Space Agency, acting on behalf of the Greek government, signed an agreement with commercial space station company Vast to fly ESA flight surgeon Dr. Adrianos Golemis to the International Space Station in 2027. The flight still depends on Golemis clearing final medical certification, but the deal marks the moment a long-running national ambition turned into a mission with a launch vehicle, a crew, and a target year attached. The announcement drew a heavier political footprint than a typical astronaut assignment. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and French President Emmanuel Macron both attended, alongside ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher and Vast CEO Max Haot. Aschbacher called it "a historic moment for Greece: a national ambition becoming a concrete human spaceflight mission." Greek Minister of Digital Governance and Artificial Intelligence Dimitris Papastergiou framed it as the payoff of "a sustained national effort," according to ESA's and Vast's announcements of the deal. Who is flying, and on what. Golemis is not a newcomer to human spaceflight operations - he already works for ESA as a flight surgeon, the physicians who monitor astronaut health before, during, and after missions. He holds a medical degree from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and a master's degree in space sciences from the International Space University. Under the new agreement, he begins astronaut training in both Europe and the United States starting this month. The mission carrying him is designated Vast-PAM-1, Vast's sixth private astronaut mission to the ISS. It will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with a Crew Dragon spacecraft, operating under NASA's private-astronaut-mission framework - the same mechanism that has allowed non-government crews to fly to the station in recent years. Golemis will not be alone in the capsule: the mission is commanded by Thomas Pesquet, the veteran French ESA astronaut, with Czech ESA project astronaut Aleš Svoboda serving as pilot and Golemis flying as mission specialist. Neither ESA's press release nor Vast's announcement gave a precise launch date beyond the 2027 target window; both said a fourth crew member has yet to be named, with an announcement expected soon. How a private mission becomes a national first. The arrangement illustrates how the private astronaut mission model has become a route for countries without their own crewed launch capability - or a deep bench of state astronauts - to put a national citizen in orbit. Rather than waiting for a seat to open on an ESA-run mission or negotiating bilaterally with a government space agency, Greece worked through Vast, a commercial operator, with ESA acting as the enabling and coordinating partner. Golemis's status as an existing ESA employee likely smoothed that path: he was already inside the agency's astronaut-support pipeline before this agreement made him a flight candidate himself. SpaceNews' report on the Paris announcement placed the deal inside a broader European narrative - one in which the continent is pushing toward more independent human-spaceflight capability, whether through commercial partnerships like this one, ESA's own astronaut corps, or future European crew vehicles still in development. A Greek astronaut riding a Vast-brokered, NASA-framework, SpaceX-launched mission is not evidence of full independence, but it does show a European nation reaching orbit without waiting on a state-run rocket program of its own. Why it matters. For Greece, this is a genuine milestone: no Greek national has flown to space before, and having a citizen aboard the ISS carries symbolic weight for a country investing in a still-young national space effort. The presence of both the Greek prime minister and the French president at the signing - not just space-agency officials - signals that governments increasingly treat these seats as diplomatic and economic assets worth showing up for in person, not just technical achievements. For the wider spaceflight industry, the deal is another data point in the maturing market for private astronaut missions to the ISS. Vast-PAM-1 will be the company's sixth such mission, suggesting a steady cadence has formed around flying non-agency crews to the station using commercial hardware and NASA's private-astronaut framework. Each flight adds to the case that seats on the ISS - and, eventually, its commercial successors - are becoming a purchasable, schedulable resource for countries and organizations that never built their own human spaceflight programs. It's also a reminder of how much still has to go right before any of this happens. Golemis's flight remains contingent on him passing final medical certification - a standard but non-trivial hurdle for any astronaut candidate - and the 2027 timeline is a target, not a locked launch date. Commander Thomas Pesquet's involvement gives the mission an experienced hand at the controls, which may ease some of the operational risk of flying a first-time national astronaut on a commercial mission. But until Golemis is certified and a launch date is set, the "historic moment" Aschbacher described is a signed agreement pointing toward a mission, not yet a completed one. Sources.

Business Insider

Aug 21st, 2026

Vast space station startup cuts 46 jobs after raising $500M

Vast, a space station startup founded by crypto billionaire Jed McCaleb, has laid off 46 employees, representing 4% of its workforce. The California-based company confirmed the cuts were performance-related and said it continues hiring for 277 open positions. The redundancies follow a $500 million funding round raised months earlier to support launching the world's first commercial space station in 2027. Two affected employees told Business Insider no performance concerns had been raised in recent reviews. Vast is developing commercial replacements for the International Space Station, which is scheduled for deorbiting in 2030. The company plans to launch Haven-1 next year on a SpaceX rocket, followed by Haven-2, a 12-person modular station, by 2028. The cuts come amid uncertainty over NASA's funding plans for next-generation commercial space stations.

Intelligence Community News

Jul 23rd, 2026

Vast names Melanie Stricklan as special programs SVP.

Vast names Melanie Stricklan as special programs SVP. 0 Comments On July 22, Vast announced the appointment of Melanie Stricklan, co-founder and former CEO of Slingshot Aerospace and a 21-year U.S. Air Force veteran, as senior vice president of special programs. The new division will deliver space-based capabilities for the U.S. national security enterprise, including the defense and intelligence communities. "Melanie brings to Vast more than two decades of experience at the intersection of advanced technology, national security, and commercial space," said Max Haot, CEO of Vast. "She is joining Vast at a pivotal moment as we develop in-house, high-performance technologies with direct applications for the U.S. defense and intelligence communities." Stricklan co-founded and led Slingshot Aerospace, a global leader in space intelligence and autonomy. Prior to Slingshot, she served 21 years in the U.S. Air Force spanning advanced space systems development and testing, acquisitions, operations and national security leadership. Most recently, she led innovation and strategic growth at Space Foundation, where she built Space Workforce for Tomorrow (SWFT) into a national space industry coalition. "The pace of technological innovation is accelerating, and America's leadership in space will depend on its ability to develop and deploy new capabilities faster than ever before," said Stricklan. "Vast combines proven spaceflight expertise, advanced manufacturing, and a mission-first mindset to support the United States' most critical national security missions in low Earth orbit and beyond." Vast's Special Programs division draws on the company's commercial platforms, cutting-edge engineering, and vertically integrated advanced manufacturing, operating across classified and unclassified programs to deliver resilient, U.S.-built, mission-critical systems on commercial timelines and at commercial cost. Keep up with your competitors by following notable executive moves across the IC contracting space - become a paid subscriber to IC News.

GovCon Wire

Jul 23rd, 2026

Vast appoints Former Slingshot Aerospace CEO Melanie Stricklan as special programs SVP.

Vast appoints Former Slingshot Aerospace CEO Melanie Stricklan as special programs SVP. * Melanie Stricklan will lead Vast's newly established special programs division * The new division is focused on space-based capabilities for defense and intelligence missions * The unit will combine Vast's commercial platforms, engineering expertise and advanced manufacturing capabilities Former Slingshot Aerospace CEO Melanie Stricklan has been named senior vice president of special programs at Vast. Stricklan will lead the newly established special programs division, which will develop space-based capabilities for the national security enterprise, including the defense and intelligence communities, the company said Wednesday. What will Stricklan lead at Vast? Vast's new division will support both classified and unclassified efforts, combining the company's commercial platforms with its engineering and advanced manufacturing capabilities. The company said the unit will produce U.S.-built systems for national security missions using the speed and cost structures of commercial development. Vast CEO Max Haot said Stricklan brings more than two decades of experience spanning advanced technology, national security and commercial space. "She is joining Vast at a pivotal moment as we develop in-house, high-performance technologies with direct applications for the U.S. defense and intelligence communities." Vast's move into the national security space comes as government and industry leaders prepare to discuss the sector's evolving priorities at the Potomac Officers Club's 2026 Air and Space Summit on July 30. The event will bring together senior Air Force, Space Force and NASA leaders to examine emerging technologies and programs shaping the future of air and space capabilities. Register now! What is Stricklan's background? Stricklan co-founded Slingshot Aerospace in 2016 and led the space intelligence and autonomous systems company for a decade. She served in the U.S. Air Force for 21 years, where she gained extensive experience holding leadership roles in advanced space systems development and testing, acquisitions, operations and national security. She most recently served as chief innovation and advancement officer at Space Foundation, where she grew Space Workforce for Tomorrow into a nationwide coalition for the space industry. Stricklan has also served on the Aerospace Department External Advisory Committee at the University of Texas at Austin for more than five years and as a member of the White House's National Space Council Users' advisory group. What is Vast? Founded in 2021, Vast develops commercial space infrastructure and technologies for activities including microgravity research, in-space manufacturing and human spaceflight. The Long Beach, California-based company is developing its Haven series of commercial space stations and plans to launch Haven-1 in 2027. Vast has raised $500 million in financing to advance development of its Haven space stations, grow its workforce and expand its facilities. The company is also pursuing government opportunities, including NASA's private astronaut mission program and the Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destinations initiative. The company has also added senior leaders with experience in government and national security. In June, former Aerospace Corp. President and CEO Steve Isakowitz joined Vast as an adviser, bringing experience from NASA, the U.S. Space Force and other government organizations.

SAPO Tek

Jul 12th, 2026

ISS will have more company. First private space station could arrive as early as 2027.

ISS will have more company. First private space station could arrive as early as 2027. After more than 25 years as the only major inhabited space station, the ISS could gain company in 2027, in a new phase where private companies want to conquer Earth orbit. Haven-1 is already being prepared. For more than two decades, the International Space Station (ISS) was the only large inhabited laboratory in low Earth orbit. But this scenario could change soon. The US company Vast is developing Haven-1, touted as the world's first commercial space station, with launch planned for the first quarter of 2027, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Haven-1 is designed to host up to four astronauts, from both space agencies and private entities, on missions of up to two weeks. See images of Haven-1. With about 45 cubic meters of habitable space, it will include areas for scientific research, microgravity experiments, materials and technology manufacturing, and a large panoramic window for Earth observation. The station will be visited by Crew Dragon capsules, which will also provide power and life support during missions. The video shows the development of Vast's plan. The project comes at a time when NASA is preparing for the post-ISS future. The international station is expected to be deorbited by the end of 2030 or early 2031, although the final decision depends on the maturity of commercial alternatives being developed. Meanwhile, China continues to expand the Tiangong space station, currently the only permanently inhabited station besides the ISS. The plan is to double its size, from three to six modules, reinforcing the scientific and operational capacity of the infrastructure over the next few years. These are images of the Chinese space station. For Vast, Haven-1 is just the first step. The company plans to evolve to Haven-2, a larger modular station that aims to become one of the successors to the ISS. Subscribe to the TEK Notícias newsletter and receive the main technology news every day in your mailbox. Featured.

VAST

Manufacturing Coordinator - Fluid Systems Manufacturing, Integration

About the job