Lead Vehicle Design Engineer

About General Galactic

General Galactic designs, develops, and builds advanced spacecraft for the most demanding missions. Led by former SpaceX, Varda, and Relativity engineers, our vision is to expand access to high-energy orbits across LEO, MEO, GEO, and cislunar space with our proprietary Genesis propulsion technology. Based in Los Angeles, California, we’re leveraging paradigm-shifting energy technology to reshape the space domain.

Job Description

You will work closely with the founders and technical team to develop critical technology for our products. You’ll have extreme ownership over your work, move quickly, and operate with high agency. As we grow, there will be opportunities to expand your role with the company.

You will lead vehicle development, qualification, and flight-readiness for General Galactic. Scope of work could include design, analysis, testing, manufacturing, etc. of the integrated vehicle. Responsibilities may be tailored to the candidate’s profile and could include:

- Lead innovative conceptualization of spacecraft vehicle architecture according to mission and customer requirements, working with subsystem leads

- Own system requirements definition & interface definition and management

- Define structural, mechanical, environmental design and integration requirements and its constituent assemblies and components including both flight and non-flight hardware

- Interface with customers to define product requirements and lead relevant milestones, verification, and validation campaigns

- Define product capabilities and generate content for a Payload Users’ Guide

- Own development and maturation of technologies and capabilities needed to achieve a flight ready vehicle

- Work across domains such as structures, thermal, dynamics, mechanisms, etc.

- Lead system-level trades to ensure vehicle design meets all physical and environmental requirements while accommodating required payload, power, propulsion, thermal, communications and attitude control system requirements

- Develop and support hardware test campaigns and performance modeling/simulation

Requirements

Successful applicants should have most of the following:

- BS in aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, or similar degree

- 4+ years of experience in cradle-to-grave engineering hardware ownership, with preference for satellite and spacecraft experience

- Demonstrated experience with satellite systems design, development, integration, test, and/or on-orbit operations

- High degree of proficiency with CAD tools and machining/assembly practices

- Experience in a fast-paced startup environment or similar

- Strong engineering background and first-principles approach to problem solving even with incomplete or partial information

Your salary and incentives will be determined individually on the basis of the following considerations: job-related knowledge and skills, education, and experience.

Base Range: $145,000 to $215,000/year + benefits + stock options plan

Very brief statements of fit/interest in this role are encouraged, please send to careers@gengalactic.com.

This position requires access to information protected under US export control laws, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations and/or the Export Administration Regulations. As such, US person status (including US citizens, U.S. permanent residents, individuals granted U.S. asylum status, or individuals admitted in U.S. refugee status) is a required qualification for this position.

General Galactic Technologies Corporation provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local laws.