Leads the vehicle engineering team responsible for the Mira spacecraft product line, including technical ownership, development, testing, integration, flight operations, sustainment, and continuous improvement. Connects propulsion, avionics, manufacturing, and integration teams to deliver recurring missions. Serves as the technical expert for spacecraft structures, mechanisms, pressure systems, and payload accommodations while managing customer and mission interfaces, mentoring engineers, and shaping the long-term product roadmap.
As the Manager for Vehicle Engineering for Mira at Impulse, you will be responsible for the overall success, delivery, sustainment, and improvement of the Mira vehicle product line. You will serve as the technical expert of the vehicle and manage a team of 4 individuals to start with potential to grow.
Responsibilities
- Lead a team of all-star responsible engineers working on the Mira spacecraft including both mechanical and vehicle level system engineering associated work
- Be the glue and train your team on how to connect hardware groups together across propulsion, avionics, manufacturing, and integration to deliver successful Mira vehicles on time at a recurring basis
- Act as the technical expert on Mira spacecraft primary structures, secondary structures, deployable mechanisms, and payload accommodations
- Manage an ever-growing number of Mira missions scaling from 6 per year to 30+ per year
- Interface regularly with mission management, mission design, and customers, supporting current missions, onboarding new ones, or performing studies on what Mira could do
- Train, guide, and mentor your team to be efficient, hardware-focused, collaborative, and technically rigorous
- Shape the long-term product roadmap for Mira both mission by mission and well into the future with major or minor block upgrades that include systemic performance, process, and automation improvements
- Direct technical ownership and individual contributor work across the vehicle
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in engineering, science or related field
- Past results and execution developing, testing, and flying spacecraft, launch vehicles, or other vehicles with similar rigorous flightworthy requirements
- Expert level technical knowledge in any of the following disciplines: primary structures, secondary structures, mechanisms, pressure systems, or other areas related to spacecraft
- Strong communication skills both technically and interpersonally to support work across a wide array of groups and departments
- Professional experience managing and growing a small team
Preferred Skills and Experience
- Master’s degree in aerospace or mechanical engineering
- 4+ years of demonstrated experience working in lead roles on spacecraft development
- Ownership of the technical development of a spacecraft through its full design cycle: conceptualization, system level trades, design, analysis, test, build, integration, and flight operations
- Demonstrated results executing multi-disciplinary problems efficiently in a startup or agile development environment that requires hands-on hardware
Additional Information:
Compensation bands are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual level and base pay is determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on job-related skills, education, experience, technical capabilities and internal equity. In addition to base salary, for full-time hires, you may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of stock options, and access to medical, vision & dental coverage as well as access to a 401(k) retirement plan.
Impulse Space’s spacecraft manufacturing business is subject to U.S. export regulations including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and Export Administration Regulations (EAR). This position requires applicants to be either U.S. Persons (i.e., U.S. citizen, U.S. national, lawful permanent U.S. resident (green card holder), an individual granted asylum in the U.S., or an individual admitted in U.S. refugee status) or persons eligible to obtain an export license from the U.S. Departments of State, Commerce, or other applicable U.S. government agencies. Learn more about the ITAR here.
Impulse Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Impulse Space 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.
About
Impulse Space, the in-space transportation company founded by Tom Mueller, is opening access beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) with its fleet of in-space transportation vehicles. The high-energy Helios vehicle unlocks orbits beyond LEO with its powerful Deneb engine, dropping off payloads in MEO, GEO, heliocentric, lunar, and other planetary orbits. The flight-proven Mira vehicle uses a nontoxic, high-impulse chemical propulsion system to offer orbital transport, constellation deployment, and precision reentry services to customers throughout LEO. Led by a team that delivered the most reliable rockets in history, Impulse provides economical and efficient in-space transportation by reliably and rapidly getting customers where they want to go.
Impulse Space El Segundo, California, USA Office
El Segundo, CA, United States, 90245
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