VP of Engineering, Vehicle  

Location: Playa Vista, California (in-person, five days per week) 

About Outpost 

Launch has changed the economics of space. Now it is time to return. Outpost is building the missing infrastructure between orbit and Earth: reusable vehicles that bring payloads back from space and deliver them to a precise location within hours, exologistics at planetary scale. Core technologies are advancing toward flight readiness, and we've validated demand through multiple defense and civil agreements with a growing commercial pipeline. We're scaling rapidly, this is the point where execution and scale define the outcome. 

The Role 

The VP of Engineering, Vehicle owns the vision, execution, and culture behind Outpost’s vehicle portfolio, including the Carryall orbital return vehicle and the Airdrop atmospheric precision delivery system, and is accountable for bringing both to operational status at scale. 

Reporting to the CTO, you will work side by side with our VP of Engineering, Product, VP of Engineering, Production and VP of Engineering, Software. 

This is a rare opportunity to take real ownership at a company with strong momentum. You will be the top day-to-day technical authority across every vehicle at Outpost, making the key architectural decisions that shape performance, schedule, and cost, while building the processes and culture that will define how Outpost designs, builds, tests, and operates vehicles as the company scales. 

At the center of it all is a bigger mission: changing the future of space exologistics by building the return lane from space. This role offers the chance to help create the infrastructure that will move materials reliably from orbit back to Earth, and to help shape both the vehicles and the organization making that future possible. 

Responsibilities 

• Full accountability for schedule, technical performance, and budget across Carryall and Airdrop; call the hard scope, risks schedule and make/buy trade-offs.
• Hire, develop, and manage engineering leaders across all vehicle disciplines; set the standard for technical excellence, ownership, and pace.
• Own architecture implementation, interface control, and performance envelopes; enforce design standards, margin policy, and flight readiness criteria; chair PDR, CDR, TRR, and CoFR reviews.
• Own Material Review Board /Failure Reporting, Analysis, and Corrective Action System rigor, oversight of test planning and execution.
• Establish DFM, QMS, configuration management, and acceptance criteria to move Carryall and Airdrop from development into LRIP and fleet-scale production.
• Own make/buy and supplier strategy across propulsion, avionics, TPS, and recovery subsystems.
• Represent vehicle engineering to the CEO, Board, customers, and government stakeholders; align execution with Programs, BD, and Operations.

Qualifications 

• Bachelor's or higher in Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical, or Systems Engineering.
• 10+ year's experience, spanning the full life cycle of space vehicle and spacecraft development.
• Demonstrated operational technical authority on a complete vehicle program from architecture through flight and anomaly resolution.
• Track record building and scaling multi-disciplinary engineering orgs of 50+ through Directors and Principal ICs.
• Deep system-level fluency across mass, power, GNC, structural loads, and thermal environments.
• Experience bridging R&D and manufacturing (DFM, travelers, acceptance criteria, LRIP).

Preferred Experience 

• Active U.S. Government Security Clearance (not required, but beneficial)
• Reentry vehicles, hypersonics, precision aerial delivery, or autonomous recovery systems.
• FAR/DFARS, OTA, or NASA safety and mission assurance fluency.
• Venture-backed or rapid-growth aerospace experience.

Compensation & Benefits 

• Competitive compensation: $275,000 – $325,000; (commensurate with experience).
• Additional Compensation:  Annual performance-based bonuses that reward your impact.
• Shared upside: Meaningful equity in Outpost so you share directly in the value you help create.
• Comprehensive healthcare: Medical, dental, and vision coverage to keep you and your loved ones covered. We cover the base tier of medical insurance and all premiums of vision and dental. 
  
• Protection when it matters: Company-provided short- and long-term disability coverage for peace of mind, plus life insurance for even more security.
• PTO: Recharge on your own terms with paid time off, plus 9 days of paid holidays.
• Invest in your future: 401(k) with company match to help you build long-term wealth.
• Fueled for the mission: Daily DoorDash lunch stipend, plus unlimited snacks, coffee, and tea to keep you energized.
• Mission that matters: Work shoulder-to-shoulder with leaders from aerospace, new space, and deep-tech industries building the future of orbital infrastructure.
• Pet Friendly Office: Bring your furry friend into the office so that they can be a part of our mission too.
• Monthly Company Happy Hours and Events: Drinks at the local bar, hibachi nights, mini golfing and more! 

 Senior Structure Analysis Engineer

Location: Playa Vista, California (in-person, five days per week) 

Outpost is building the return lane from space. We’re developing reusable vehicles that bring payloads home from orbit safely and precisely, enabling faster in-space manufacturing, global delivery, and entirely new capabilities in the space economy. 

We’re a mission-driven team that cares deeply about the work and the people doing it. We are in an exciting stage of growth, which means ownership from day one. Our engineers design hardware, test it, iterate on it, and watch it move toward flight. We are based in the aerospace hub of Playa Vista, where you can spend your days solving complex problems and your evenings on the beach or in the mountains. The work is meaningful, the team is collaborative, and the mission matters. If you want to see the systems you design make it to orbit—and back—come build with us. 

The Role 

We’re looking for a Senior Structure Analysis Engineer to own structural and thermal analysis across flight hardware, from early design through flight readiness and production. This role sits at the center of engineering decision-making. You will be responsible for ensuring hardware is analytically sound, flight-worthy, and properly dispositioned - working closely with mechanical design, avionics, test, manufacturing, and systems teams. 

Responsibilities

• Own structural analysis of primary and secondary spacecraft structures, including but not limited to:
  • Modal analysis
  • Random vibration
  • Static and quasi-static loading
  • Coefficient of Thermal Expansion (CTE) and thermo-elastic loading
• Perform analysis on a wide range of hardware, including:
  • Flight structures and mechanisms
  • Avionics enclosures
  • PCB and electronics assemblies
  • Lead or support thermal analysis to evaluate operating margins, gradients, and coupled structural-thermal effects
• Serve as a technical authority for hardware disposition:
  • Assess flight and test hardware prior to production
  • Support nonconformance (NCR) resolution and root-cause analysis
  • Provide clear, defensible recommendations for accept-as-is, repair, or rework decisions
  • Partner closely with design and test teams to translate requirements into analysis models and to correlate analysis with test result                   
  • Contribute to analysis methodologies, best practices, and documentation that scale with the program. 

Qualifications 

• 8+ years of experience, with at least 5 years analyzing complex aerospace components.
• Bachelors required, Masters preferred in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related engineering discipline.
• Proficiency in ANSYS FEM software (NASTRAN, FEMAP, Abaqus and similar acceptable)
• Senior-level expertise in either structural or thermal analysis, with demonstrated proficiency in the alternate discipline.
• Strong experience applying analysis to real flight hardware - not just academic models.
• Deep understanding of aerospace loading environments, material behavior, and margin assessment.
• Experience supporting hardware through test, flight qualification, and production.
• Ability to work hands-on in a fast-moving, on-site hardware environment and communicate technical results clearly to cross-functional teams.
• Experience analyzing space rated avionics and structures is a plus.
• Is able to work independently with little guidance of more senior team members.
• Shows ability to develop new and relevant skills beyond core technical function.
• Is able to consistently identify and propose solutions to technical problems in their function. 

Compensation & Benefit

• Competitive compensation: $140,000 - $180,000; (commensurate with experience). 
• Additional Compensation:  Annual performance-based bonuses that reward your impact.
• Shared upside: Meaningful equity in Outpost so you share directly in the value you help create.
• Comprehensive healthcare: Medical, dental, and vision coverage to keep you and your loved ones covered. We cover the base tier of medical insurance and all premiums of vision and dental. 
  
• Protection when it matters: Company-provided short- and long-term disability coverage for peace of mind, plus life insurance for even more security.
• PTO: Recharge on your own terms with paid time off, plus 9 days of paid holidays.
• Invest in your future: 401(k) with company match to help you build long-term wealth.
• Fueled for the mission: Daily DoorDash lunch stipend, plus unlimited snacks, coffee, and tea to keep you energized.
• Mission that matters: Work shoulder-to-shoulder with leaders from aerospace, new space, and deep-tech industries building the future of orbital infrastructure.
• Pet Friendly Office: Bring your furry friend into the office so that they can be a part of our mission too.
• Monthly Company Happy Hours and Events: Drinks at the local bar, hibachi nights, mini golfing and more! 

You must be a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15 ,or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State 

Sr. Mechanical Engineer

Location: Playa Vista, California (in-person, five days per week) 

Launch has changed the economics of space. Now it is time to return. 

Outpost is building the missing infrastructure between orbit and Earth: reusable vehicles that can bring payloads back from space and deliver them to a precise location within hours. We call it exologistics, space-to-Earth logistics at planetary scale. This is not a paper concept or a distant roadmap. Our system is in active development, with core technologies advancing toward flight readiness. 

The need is already here and the market has responded. We have validated demand through multiple defense and civil agreements, and a growing pipeline across government and commercial customers.  

Outpost is building the logistics layer that makes space economically useful in a new way: the ability to move material from orbit to Earth quickly, reliably, and affordably. Over time, that supports point-to-point logistics, 10 tons of cargo, anywhere on Earth in an hour. It also creates the foundation for a reusable reentry network and enables new categories of space activity, including in-space manufacturing, supporting AI data centers, advanced manufacturing and novel materials. 

We have a strong foundation, clear demand, and a technical path in front of us. Now the company is scaling rapidly. We are expanding the team, growing our operational footprint, and building the systems needed to execute at the next level. This is a chance to join a company with real traction, working on a problem that matters, at the point where execution and scale begin to define the outcome.

The Role 

The Sr. Mechanical Engineer will serve as the technical authority for the primary and secondary structures of Outpost’s Carryall. This is a role for a veteran structural engineer who has expertise on full-scale flight vehicles whether launch vehicles, satellites, or re-entry capsules. Unlike traditional space vehicle roles where the structure simply needs to survive launch, you are designing for the round trip: launch vibration, the harsh vacuum of orbit, and the extreme thermal and mechanical loads of hypersonic re-entry and landing. You will own the structural architecture of the vehicle, moving rapidly from trade studies to detailed analysis, and finally to hands-on integration. We need someone with the deep intuition that comes from 15+ years of seeing hardware fly (and fail). 

Responsibilities 

• Structural Architect: Lead the mechanical design of the entire vehicle structure, including primary structure, interfaces to the deployable heatshield, secondary structures, and payload bay
• High-Fidelity Analysis: Perform and sign off on detailed hand calculations and Finite Element Analysis (ANSYS/FEMAP/NASTRAN). You will be the final check on stiffness, buckling, and thermal expansion compatibility.
• Drawing & GD&T: Create and approve high-quality manufacturing drawings with appropriate geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (ASME Y14.5) to ensure parts fit the first time.
• Build & Test Leadership: "Get your hands dirty" leading the assembly of your designs. Own the structural test campaign (static load, random vibration, shock, and deployment testing) to qualify hardware for flight.
• Vendor & Partner Management: Work directly with machine shops, composite vendors, and external partners to resolve fabrication conflicts and ensure on-time delivery of precision parts.
• Mentorship: Elevate the team's standard of engineering rigor. Mentor junior engineers in design best practices, analysis methods, and First Principles thinking. 

Qualifications 

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Mechanical, Aerospace, or Structural Engineering.
• 10+ years of experience minimum (15+ preferred) in the design and analysis of complex aerospace structures and mechanisms.
• Full-Vehicle Heritage: Proven track record working on full space vehicles or rockets (not just subsystems). You should have experience taking a primary structure from concept through PDR/CDR to flight.
• CAD Proficiency: Expert-level skill in Siemens NX, SolidWorks, or similar parametric modeling software.
• Analysis Expertise: Deep background in structural analysis (FEA) and classical hand calculations. You must trust your hand calcs before you trust the solver.
• Materials Knowledge: Extensive understanding of aerospace materials (aluminum, titanium, Inconel, composites) and their behavior in extreme thermal environments.
• Manufacturing Fluency: You understand the limits of manufacturing, CNC machining, sheet metal, welding, and composite layup, and you design for them. 

Preferred Experience 

• Active U.S. Government Security Clearance (Not required, but beneficial)
• Experience with deployable space structures and mechanisms (booms, solar arrays, antennas, or aerobrakes).
• Experience designing for high-heat environments or integrating with Thermal Protection Systems (TPS).
• Proficiency in scripting (Python/MATLAB) for design automation or data post-processing.
• Deep knowledge of aerospace standards (NASA-STD-5000 series, SMC-S-016) for structural margins and testing. 

Compensation & Benefits 

• Competitive compensation: $160,000 – $210,000; (commensurate with experience).
• Additional Compensation:  Annual performance-based bonuses that reward your impact.
• Shared upside: Meaningful equity in Outpost so you share directly in the value you help create.
• Comprehensive healthcare: Medical, dental, and vision coverage to keep you and your loved ones covered. We cover the base tier of medical insurance and all premiums of vision and dental. 
  
• Protection when it matters: Company-provided short- and long-term disability coverage for peace of mind, plus life insurance for even more security.
• PTO: Recharge on your own terms with paid time off, plus 9 days of paid holidays.
• Invest in your future: 401(k) with company match to help you build long-term wealth.
• Fueled for the mission: Daily DoorDash lunch stipend, plus unlimited snacks, coffee, and tea to keep you energized.
• Mission that matters: Work shoulder-to-shoulder with leaders from aerospace, new space, and deep-tech industries building the future of orbital infrastructure.
• Pet Friendly Office: Bring your furry friend into the office so that they can be a part of our mission too.
• Monthly Company Happy Hours and Events: Drinks at the local bar, hibachi nights, mini golfing and more! 

Mechanical Engineer 

Location: Playa Vista, California (in-person, five days per week) 

Launch has changed the economics of space. Now it is time to return. 

Outpost is building the missing infrastructure between orbit and Earth: reusable vehicles that can bring payloads back from space and deliver them to a precise location within hours. We call it exologistics, space-to-Earth logistics at planetary scale. This is not a paper concept or a distant roadmap. Our system is in active development, with core technologies advancing toward flight readiness. 

The need is already here, and the market has responded. We have validated demand through multiple defense and civil agreements, and a growing pipeline across government and commercial customers. 

Outpost is building the logistics layer that makes space economically useful in a new way: the ability to move material from orbit to Earth quickly, reliably, and affordably. Over time, that supports point-to-point logistics, 10 tons of cargo, anywhere on Earth in an hour. It also creates the foundation for a reusable reentry network and enables new categories of space activity, including in-space manufacturing, supporting AI data centers, advanced manufacturing, and novel materials. 

We have a strong foundation, clear demand, and a technical path in front of us. Now the company is scaling rapidly. We are expanding the team, growing our operational footprint, and building the systems needed to execute at the next level. This is a chance to join a company with real traction, working on a problem that matters, at the point where execution and scale begin to define the outcome.  

The Role 

Outpost's vehicles are unlike anything in the market - reusable, fabric-shielded, paraglider-guided Earth-return spacecraft. We're looking for a Mechanical Engineer to join our Structures and Mechanism team who will design and build the test and qualification process for spacecraft components and vehicles - from concept through execution and data analysis. This is a deep mechanical role with elements of instrumentation and data acquisition, and strong ownership over how our hardware earns its right to fly. 

This role spans the full engineering lifecycle - design, analysis, drawing release, build support, and test. You'll work alongside an integrated team and have meaningful ownership of your hardware from day one.   

What You’ll Do  

• Design, model, and fabricate mechanical components and test fixtures for spacecraft assemblies, including heat shield, payload containment, parachute and paraglider systems, and primary and secondary structure.
• Select materials, fasteners, and mechanical interfaces that satisfy flight boundary conditions.
• Produce engineering drawings and documentation for in-house build or vendor fabrication.
• Iterate designs rapidly based on test outcomes and anomalies, build, test, learn, improve.
• Set up and execute test, including apply instrumentation (load cells, strain gauges, displacement sensors, thermocouples, pressure transducers), and verifying boundary conditions prior to every test run.
• Troubleshoot mechanical test anomalies hands-on: trace failures to root cause, propose corrective actions, and retest to closure Participate in peer reviews and formal milestone reviews (CDR, TRR, etc.).

 Qualifications 

• Bachelor’s or higher degree in Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics, or a related field.
• 2-5+ years of hands-on experience designing flight hardware structures and mechanisms.
• Experience in hardware test development.
• Familiarity with spacecraft or launch vehicle components, or other space/aviation hardware where qualification and reliability are critical.
• Proficiency in 3D CAD (Siemens NX, CATIA, SolidWorks or similar) and GD&T.
• Experience taking hardware from design to build to test in an aerospace or space environment.
• Ability to read and understand mechanical drawings, GD&T.
• Strong documentation habits and familiarity with following structured standards and guidelines.
• Familiarity with NASA test and qualification standards (GEVS / NASA-STD-7002, SMC-S-016) and ASME Y14.5 drawing conventions at a functional level.

 Preferred Experience 

• Active U.S. Government Security Clearance (not required, but beneficial).
• Experience with data acquisition and analysis using at least one of: LabVIEW, Python, MATLAB, or similar tools.
• Experience with deployable space structures and mechanisms (booms, solar arrays, antennas, or aerobrakes). 

Compensation & Benefits

• Competitive compensation: $100,000 – $140,000; (commensurate with experience).
• Additional Compensation:  Annual performance-based bonuses that reward your impact.
• Shared upside: Meaningful equity in Outpost so you share directly in the value you help create.
• Comprehensive healthcare: Medical, dental, and vision coverage to keep you and your loved ones covered. We cover the base tier of medical insurance and all premiums of vision and dental. 
  
• Protection when it matters: Company-provided short- and long-term disability coverage for peace of mind, plus life insurance for even more security.
• PTO: Recharge on your own terms with paid time off, plus 9 days of paid holidays.
• Invest in your future: 401(k) with company match to help you build long-term wealth.
• Fueled for the mission: Daily DoorDash lunch stipend, plus unlimited snacks, coffee, and tea to keep you energized.
• Mission that matters: Work shoulder-to-shoulder with leaders from aerospace, new space, and deep-tech industries building the future of orbital infrastructure.
• Pet Friendly Office: Bring your furry friend into the office so that they can be a part of our mission too.
• Monthly Company Happy Hours and Events: Drinks at the local bar, hibachi nights, mini golfing and more! 

Director of Structures and Mechanisms 

Location: Playa Vista, California (in-person, five days per week) 

About Outpost 

Launch has changed the economics of space. Now it is time to return. Outpost is building the missing infrastructure between orbit and Earth: reusable vehicles that bring payloads back from space and deliver them to a precise location within hours, exologistics at planetary scale. Core technologies are advancing toward flight readiness, and we've validated demand through multiple defense and civil agreements with a growing commercial pipeline. We're scaling rapidly, this is the point where execution and scale define the outcome. 

The Role 

The Director of Structures and Mechanisms is the executive technical leader for all primary structures, secondary structures, and deployable mechanisms across Outpost's Carryall vehicle. This role combines deep structural engineering expertise with leadership you will build, scale, and lead a multi-disciplinary team of structures, mechanisms, and mechanical engineers while owning the architecture, analysis, qualification, and flight certification of the entire structural system. 

Unlike traditional space vehicle roles where the structure simply needs to survive launch, you are designing for the round trip: launch vibration, the harsh vacuum of orbit, and the extreme thermal and mechanical loads of hypersonic re-entry and landing. You will own the technical execution of every structural element on the vehicle, with full accountability to executive leadership for overall flight readiness. We need a proven leader with the deep intuition that comes from seeing hardware fly (and fail), and the management experience to scale a world-class team around that expertise. 

Responsibilities 

• Build, grow, and lead the Structures & Mechanisms organization. Recruit, mentor, and develop engineers across multiple sub-disciplines (primary structure, mechanisms, TPS, analysis).
• Serve as the final sign-off for the structural architecture of the vehicle, including primary structure, interfaces to the deployable heatshield, secondary structures, deployable mechanisms, and payload bay.
• Partner cross-functionally to resolve system-level trades. Represent Structures in executive reviews, customer milestone reviews, and with government stakeholders.
• Establish and enforce analysis standards across the team, hand calculations, FEA (ANSYS/FEMAP/NASTRAN), stiffness, buckling, fatigue, and thermal expansion compatibility. Be the final technical check on margin policy and verification logic.
• Own the release process and quality bar for mechanical manufacturing drawings and geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (ASME Y14.5) across the department.
• Coordinate with the production team on structural qualification campaign end-to-end, static load, random vibration, shock, deployment, and environmental testing, to certify hardware for flight.
• Coordinate with the production team to stablish strategic relationships with machine shops, composite vendors, and external partners. Support make-vs-buy decisions and ensure supply chain resilience for precision flight hardware.
• Brief the CEO, board, customers, and government partners on structural design, risk posture, and program status. 

Qualifications 

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Mechanical, Aerospace, or Structural Engineering.
• 10+ years of experience in the design and analysis of complex aerospace structures and mechanisms, with at least 3+ years in a management or technical leadership role leading multi-disciplined engineering teams.
• Proven track record leading structures on full space vehicles or rockets (not just subsystems).
• Demonstrated experience hiring, scaling, and mentoring engineering teams of 5+ engineers; comfortable setting OKRs, running performance reviews, and managing costs.
• Expert-level fluency in Siemens NX, SolidWorks, or similar parametric modeling software, with the ability to drive standards across the team.
• Deep background in structural analysis (FEA) and classical hand calculations. You must trust your hand calcs before you trust the solver.
• Extensive understanding of aerospace materials (aluminum, titanium, inconel, composites) and their behavior in extreme thermal environments.
• Deep command of CNC machining, sheet metal, and welding with a design-for-manufacturing mindset you can instill across the org.

Preferred Experience 

• Active U.S. Government Security Clearance (not required, but beneficial).
• Experience with deployable space structures and mechanisms (booms, solar arrays, antennas, or aerobrakes).
• Experience in taking primary structure from concept through PDR/CDR to flight.
• Experience designing for high-heat environments or integrating with Thermal Protection Systems (TPS).
• Deep knowledge of aerospace standards (NASA-STD-5000 series, SMC-S-016) for structural margins and testing.
• Prior experience as a Director, Chief Engineer, or department head at a launch, reentry, satellite, or hypersonics company.

Compensation & Benefits 

• Competitive compensation: $165,000 – $220,000; (commensurate with experience),
• Additional Compensation:  Annual performance-based bonuses that reward your impact.
• Shared upside: Meaningful equity in Outpost so you share directly in the value you help create.
• Comprehensive healthcare: Medical, dental, and vision coverage to keep you and your loved ones covered. We cover the base tier of medical insurance and all premiums of vision and dental. 
  
• Protection when it matters: Company-provided short- and long-term disability coverage for peace of mind, plus life insurance for even more security.
• PTO: Recharge on your own terms with paid time off, plus 9 days of paid holidays.
• Invest in your future: 401(k) with company match to help you build long-term wealth.
• Fueled for the mission: Daily DoorDash lunch stipend, plus unlimited snacks, coffee, and tea to keep you energized.
• Mission that matters: Work shoulder-to-shoulder with leaders from aerospace, new space, and deep-tech industries building the future of orbital infrastructure.
• Pet Friendly Office: Bring your furry friend into the office so that they can be a part of our mission too.
• Monthly Company Happy Hours and Events: Drinks at the local bar, hibachi nights, mini golfing and more!