About this Senior / Staff Build Reliability Engineer (Avionics) role at Vast
At Vast, our mission is to contribute to a future where billions of people are living and thriving in space. Vast is developing next-generation space stations 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. Using an incremental, hardware-rich and low-cost approach, Vast is rapidly developing its multi-module Haven Station. 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, followed by additional Haven modules to enable permanent human presence by 2030. Our team is all-in, committed to executing our mission safely and on time. If you want to work with the most talented people on Earth furthering space exploration for humanity, come join us.
Vast is looking for a Senior / Staff Build Reliability Engineer (Avionics), reporting to the Director of Build & Supplier Reliability, to support the reliability of flight avionics hardware across the product lifecycle for our human-rated space stations.
This will be a full-time, exempt position located in our Long Beach location.
Responsibilities:
- Own Build Reliability for avionics hardware and work centers, setting expectations for reliability, manufacturability, and build and flight readiness.
- Partner with Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, and Mission Assurance leadership to ensure robust, scalable quality and verification plans across the product lifecycle, with lessons consistently carried across programs.
- Ensure successful introduction of flight hardware by defining readiness criteria–including process qualification, manufacturability, and inspectability–and driving the retirement of build risks through production ramp-up.
- Drive maturation of internal avionics production processes, ensuring documentation, equipment, tooling, process controls, data collection, and training support consistent and streamlined execution.
- Ensure off-nominal work is performed and documented reliably. Partner with Mission Assurance to drive risk mitigations and steer response plans to severe issues. Provide leadership and technical direction for high-visibility issues, establishing recovery plans and aligning operations, quality, and engineering on execution.
- Collect and analyze build data to identify risk and recurring issues. Lead build quality reviews, generate data-driven recommendations, and effectively influence partner teams to prioritize efforts that prevent escapes and improve reliability.
- Lead containment and root-cause investigation of high-impact Avionics-related issues. Ensure implementation and verification of robust corrective actions that address root cause and systemic contributors across Vast.
- Lead major cost reduction initiatives through simplification of requirements, clearer design standards, streamlined inspection and process validation steps, and strengthened process controls.
- Mentor individuals and teams to elevate reliability capabilities across the company.
Minimum Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline or equivalent experience
- 12+ years of experience in quality, manufacturing, reliability, or design in aerospace, defense, or high-reliability hardware environments
- Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional initiatives with executive visibility and influence technical direction across organizations
- Excellent communication and technical leadership skills
Preferred Skills & Experience:
- Proven track record of driving systemic improvements and shaping engineering strategy.
- Deep expertise in reliability engineering, quality systems, and standards (ISO 9001, AS9100, etc.)
- Mastery of advanced reliability and quality tools (RCA, FMEA, SPC, control plans); Six Sigma Black Belt or equivalent experience preferred
- Strong technical depth in avionics design, manufacturing, integration, and/or test
Additional Requirements:
- Ability to travel up to 10%
- Ability to support mission-critical events outside normal working hours
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.
