About this Role

As a Mechanisms Engineer on Varda’s Payload team, you will develop electromechanical flight hardware that operates in orbit, endures hypersonic reentry, and returns to Earth for inspection and iteration. You will take full-stack responsibility for payloads across both pharmaceutical manufacturing and hypersonic reentry testbed missions—delivering flight hardware from concept through build, test, launch, and recovery.

You’ll collaborate closely with internal specialists and external partners, translate engineering requirements into flight-ready designs, and perform hands-on integration and testing to deliver hardware that flies in months, not years. This role is ideal for engineers with strong mechanical fundamentals who want to grow their breadth across thermal, fluids, avionics, software, and integration while shipping real hardware to space and back.

Responsibilities

• Own payload hardware from concept through design, integration, launch, reentry, and recovery
• Design mechanisms, structures, thermal/fluid interfaces, and electromechanical assemblies
• Run structural, thermal, and fluid analyses (hand calcs, simplified models, and FEA as needed)
• Build, instrument, and test prototypes and flight hardware
• Work across avionics, software, thermal, systems, and integration teams to define interfaces and ensure compatibility
• Serve as the primary technical point of contact for assigned payloads
• Generate documentation: requirements, ICDs, procedures, test reports
• Support mission operations and post-flight teardown
• Contribute to lessons learned and continuous improvement

Basic Qualifications

• BS/BEng in Mechanical, Aerospace, Mechatronics, or related engineering discipline
• Strong fundamentals in structures, heat transfer, fluids, and dynamics
• Hands-on experience designing, integrating, testing, and troubleshooting electromechanical hardware
• Ability to communicate effectively across disciplines

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience integrating electromechanical actuators, sensors, thermal control hardware and/or fluid control hardware
• Experience using CAD (NX preferred) and FEA (Ansys, Nastran)
• Exposure to aerospace environmental testing (vibration, TVAC, EMI/EMC)
• Customer-facing technical communication experience
• Ability to obtain a government security clearance

Pay Range

• Salary Range:
  • Engineer I: $104,000.00 - $130,000.00/per year
  • Engineer II: $114,000.00 - $145,000.00/per year
• This role is on-site in El Segundo, CA
• Leveling and base salary is determined by job-related skills, education level, experience level, and job performance
• You will be eligible for incentives in the form of stock options and/or long-term cash awards

About this Role

As a Principal Mechanisms Engineer on Varda’s Payload team, you will define and lead the development of complex electromechanical flight hardware that operates in orbit, endures hypersonic reentry, and returns to Earth for inspection and iteration. You will shape payload architecture across pharmaceutical manufacturing and hypersonic reentry testbed missions—guiding systems from early concept through detailed design, integration, testing, launch, and recovery. You’ll work closely with internal leadership and external partners, translating mission needs into engineering strategy and technical direction. This role is ideal for engineers with deep mechanical expertise and broad cross-disciplinary insight who want to influence system architecture, lead multi-mission efforts, and mentor engineers while delivering complex hardware on rapid flight timelines.

Responsibilities

• Define architecture, requirements, and development plans for multi-payload or multi-mission systems
• Lead complex mechanism and electromechanical subsystem design efforts
• Drive system-level analyses, trade studies, and risk reduction using a variety of tools (hand calcs, python/matlab models, FEA, etc. as needed)
• Lead cross-functional project teams across avionics, software, thermal, systems, integration
• Represent Varda to senior internal  leadership and external partners
• Drive subsystem requirements, ICDs, verification plans, and documentation
• Lead build, integration, testing, mission operations, recovery, and anomaly resolution
• Guide lessons-learned processes and influence payload development cycles
• Mentor senior and entry-level engineers and shape best practices

Basic Qualifications

• BS/BEng in Mechanical, Aerospace, Mechatronics, or related field
• 7+ years of experience designing, integrating, testing, and troubleshooting electromechanical hardware
• Deep mechanical expertise with breadth in at least two adjacent disciplines (avionics, software, thermal, optics, test, etc.)
• Track record leading teams through full cycle electromechanical space flight hardware development
• Experience communicating with diverse technical and executive audiences, both internal and external

Preferred Skills and Experience

• 3+ years of cross-functional project leadership experience
• Significant experience planning and executing aerospace environmental testing (vibration, TVAC, EMI/EMC)
• Experience leading government-facing technical programs
• Active Secret or Top Secret clearance

Pay Range

• Salary range: $170,000 - $220,000/per year
• This role is on-site in El Segundo, CA
• Leveling and base salary is determined by job-related skills, education level, experience level, and job performance
• You will be eligible for incentives in the form of stock options and/or long-term cash awards

About this Role

As Director, Mechanisms Engineering - Pharmaceutical Payloads at Varda, you will build and lead the team responsible for Varda's in-orbit pharmaceutical manufacturing payloads—the core of Varda's commercial business. This role combines deep technical authority with team leadership, product definition, and development execution responsibility. You will own the successful development and flight of precision electromechanical fluid-handling systems that process and crystallize pharmaceutical compounds in microgravity—then survive hypersonic reentry and return to Earth for product recovery and hardware iteration. The payloads your team designs, builds, and flies will directly determine whether in-space pharmaceutical manufacturing becomes a commercial reality.

You will build and grow a team of payload engineers responsible for individual pharmaceutical payload missions while also owning the technical definition and evolution of Varda's pharma payload product line. This includes defining the system architecture, fluid system design philosophy, and development approach, and establishing the engineering standards and processes that enable reliable execution as Varda scales in both cadence and scope.

You'll expand Varda's pharmaceutical payload capability to a scaled, repeatable product line—building the team, technical standards, and development processes to get there.

This role is ideal for a technically exceptional leader who wants to build an elite team and own the first ever industrial manufacturing capability in space from strategy through execution.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead a team of payload engineers, each responsible for executing individual pharmaceutical payload missions
• Mentor engineers and develop future technical and people leaders
• Own the pharmaceutical payload development roadmap—expanding Varda's pharmaceutical product portfolio, driving design iteration from flight data, and scaling mission cadence
• Own pharmaceutical payload engineering execution against company goals and customer contracts, including schedule, cost, and technical performance
• Manage a portfolio of concurrent payload development efforts and recurring mission executions, ensuring schedule, technical performance, and engineering quality across the portfolio
• Define and maintain standards for payload design, analysis, integration, testing, mission execution, documentation, and project management
• Work closely with avionics, software, thermal, systems, integration, and vehicle teams to define payload interfaces and constraints
• Standardize processes for environmental test campaigns, mission operations, post-flight hardware inspection, and anomaly resolution
• Drive continuous improvement through lessons learned and feedback from flight programs

Basic Qualifications

• BS/BEng in Mechanical, Aerospace, Biomedical, Mechatronics, or a related engineering discipline
• 10+ years of experience designing, integrating, testing, and delivering complex electromechanical hardware involving precision fluid handling
• 3+ years of experience leading teams through full-cycle hardware development
• Experience with electromechanical fluid systems in high-reliability or extreme environments (space, life support, medical devices, semiconductor process equipment, bioprocess systems)
• Breadth across at least two adjacent hardware disciplines (e.g., avionics, mechanisms, software, structures, thermal, optics, test, etc.)
• Demonstrated ability to set technical direction and deliver results through other engineers
• Track record managing multiple concurrent engineering development efforts
• Experience establishing and enforcing technical and programmatic standards across teams
• Exceptional communication ability with diverse technical and executive audiences

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Professional or academic exposure to chemical engineering, biomedical engineering, or a related process engineering discipline
• Experience building, scaling, or managing hardware engineering teams
• Experience owning technical roadmaps or standardized hardware product offerings
• Experience developing or operating hardware for pharmaceutical, bioprocess, or sterile/cleanroom manufacturing applications
• Familiarity with microgravity fluid behavior, capillary-driven flows, or two-phase fluid management
• Familiarity with cGMP principles or regulated hardware environments
• Significant experience planning and executing environmental testing (vibration, TVAC, EMI/EMC)

Pay Range

• Salary range: $200,000 - $250,000/per year
• This role is on-site in El Segundo, CA
• Leveling and base salary is determined by job-related skills, education level, experience level, and job performance
• You will be eligible for incentives in the form of stock options and/or long-term cash awards

About this Role

As a Senior Mechanisms Engineer on Varda’s Payload team, you will develop electromechanical flight hardware that operates in orbit, endures hypersonic reentry, and returns to Earth for inspection and iteration. You will own multi-payload missions across both pharmaceutical manufacturing and hypersonic reentry testbed missions—driving hardware from concept through design, analysis, build, test, launch, and recovery.

You’ll collaborate closely with internal specialists and external partners, translate high-level mission objectives into system designs and analyses, and perform hands-on integration and testing to deliver hardware that flies in months, not years. This role is ideal for engineers who pair strong mechanical expertise with the breadth to drive cross-functional efforts and the desire to deliver complex hardware on fast development cycles.

Responsibilities

• Own multi-payload missions from concept through design, integration, launch, reentry, and recovery
• Lead the design of mechanisms, structures, thermal/fluid interfaces, and electromechanical assemblies
• Independently perform structural, thermal, and fluid analyses (hand calcs, python/matlab models, and FEA as needed)
• Build, instrument, and test prototypes and flight hardware
• Coordinate cross-functional inputs (avionics, software, thermal, systems, integration)
• Serve as primary technical interface for multi-payload missions or complex payload development
• Drive subsystem requirements, ICDs, verification plans, and documentation
• Lead mission operations and post-flight teardown
• Lead incorporation of lessons learned and continuous improvement
• Mentor entry-level engineers and interns

Basic Qualifications

• BS/BEng in Mechanical, Aerospace, Mechatronics, or related field
• 4+ years of experience designing, integrating, testing, and troubleshooting electromechanical hardware
• Strong mechanical expertise with breadth in at least one adjacent discipline (avionics, software, thermal, optics, test, etc.)
• Experience delivering hardware into rigorous environments (aerospace, defense, medical, automotive, etc.)
• Ability to independently define tasks, manage schedules, and deliver integrated hardware
• Excellent cross-discipline communication skills

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior full cycle ownership of space flight hardware
• Experience integrating electromechanical actuators, sensors, thermal control hardware and/or fluid control hardware
• Experience planning and executing aerospace environmental testing (vibration, TVAC, EMI/EMC)
• Customer-facing technical communication experience
• Active Secret or Top Secret clearance

Pay Range

• Salary Range: $133,000.00 - $170,000.00 per year
• This role is on-site in El Segundo, CA
• Leveling and base salary is determined by job-related skills, education level, experience level, and job performance
• You will be eligible for incentives in the form of stock options and/or long-term cash awards