Senior Structural & Mechanical Engineer

Vast is seeking a Senior Structural & Mechanical Engineer to own payload mechanical integration and launch vehicle interfaces for a new constellation-ready spacecraft bus — a product line designed to scale to hundreds of spacecraft per year.

This will be a full-time, exempt position located in our Long Beach location.

About the role:

This is a new spacecraft bus designed from the start for multi-satellite launches and production scaling. The structural challenges are real — a multi-satellite dispenser architecture, a separation system, a primary structure that needs to work across multiple payload configurations, and payload mechanical integration for every customer variant. The dispenser is a key architecture trade: we may design our own or the launch vehicle provider may supply one. Either path has major implications for the launch campaign. You'll drive that decision and own the outcome.

You'll work alongside a principal mechanical engineer and collaborate across disciplines — including contributing mass properties and structural margins to the program's spacecraft design and simulation toolchain.

Responsibilities:

• Work with the principal mechanical engineer to divide responsibilities across structure, mechanisms, and integration as the program scales
• Design the primary structure for the satellite bus — sized for the launch vehicle fairing envelope
• Resolve the dispenser trade — build our own vs launch vehicle provider supplies. Either path has major implications for the launch campaign: designing and qualifying our own dispenser, or owning the integration requirements and ensuring LV-supplied hardware meets our needs.
• Own payload mechanical integration — mounting interfaces, structural accommodation, and mechanical ICDs for every customer payload variant
• Own the separation system — define the approach, design or select the mechanism, and qualify it
• Own mass properties — mass budget, center of gravity, moments of inertia across all satellite and payload configurations
• Perform structural analysis — FEA, static loads, random vibration, shock response spectrum per launch vehicle environmental requirements
• Plan mechanical integration — how do 10 satellites stack on the dispenser?
• Ensure launch vehicle Payload User Guide (PUG) compliance for all structural interfaces
• Coordinate with the solar array team on mechanical integration (boom attachment, deployment clearances)
• Contribute mass properties and structural margins to the spacecraft design and simulation toolchain
• Design for manufacturing — the structure must be producible at rate as the program scales to hundreds of spacecraft per year

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical discipline
• 5+ years of spacecraft structural design and analysis experience — primary structure, load paths, FEA
• Payload mechanical integration experience — mounting interfaces, ICDs, structural accommodation for multiple payload types
• Experience with launch vehicle mechanical interfaces — payload adapters, separation systems, dispensers
• Mass properties management for flight programs
• Familiar with launch vehicle environmental requirements (random vibe, shock, static load, acoustic)
• FEA tool proficiency (NASTRAN, Abaqus, ANSYS, or equivalent)
• CAD proficiency — you'll be doing detailed design, not just analysis
• Comfortable making architecture-level structural decisions early in the program with incomplete data

Preferred Skills & Experience:

• Able to obtain a security clearance
• Medium-lift launch vehicle payload integration experience
• Multi-satellite dispenser design or integration experience
• Experience with deployable structures (solar arrays, antennas)
• Composite structure design and manufacturing experience
• Experience scaling a structural design across multiple flight units
• Design-for-manufacturing experience — optimizing structures for producibility at rate