Assembly Integration & Test Engineer, Satellites

Vast•Long Beach, CA

17h•Onsite

About The Position

This is the founding Assembly, Integration & Test Engineer position for the satellites vertical. The team has two openings available at L2, Senior, or Staff level. You will not be inheriting a factory, a set of procedures, or a test stand — you will be building them. You own how a Vast satellite gets physically built, integrated, and proven flightworthy, from the first development unit through a production line that has to turn out flight hardware at rate. You will write the integration flow and the test philosophy, stand up the environmental test capability and the ground support equipment, lead the campaigns that use them, and then feed what you learn back into the design so the next ten units build faster than the last. You'll do this working directly alongside the discipline leads for structures, avionics, thermal, power, GNC, and flight software. If you want to define how spacecraft get built at a company rather than execute someone else's definition of it, this is that job. This will be a full-time, exempt position located in our Long Beach location.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical discipline
8+ years of experience in test engineering, integration, or another hands-on hardware engineering role
Hands-on experience with spacecraft or complex flight hardware integration.
Experience with environmental testing, including thermal vacuum and random vibration
Experience developing and executing test plans and procedures from scratch, and writing the technical documentation that supports them (procedures, test reports, requirements, discrepancy reports)
Proficiency with at least one of C, C++, Python, or MATLAB for test automation, data reduction, or GSE control
Demonstrated ability to troubleshoot hardware failures under schedule pressure and drive them to root cause
Comfortable operating without an established process

Nice To Haves

Able to obtain a security clearance
Master's or PhD in electrical, electronics, mechatronics, aerospace, or another engineering discipline
Strong working knowledge of satellite subsystems (C&DH, ADCS, EPS, COMM) and how they come together at the vehicle level
Experience with multi-unit or constellation builds, where the integration flow has to be repeatable across 10+ identical vehicles rather than optimized for one
Clean room operations and ESD-sensitive hardware handling experience
Hands-on with electrical test equipment (PSU, oscilloscope, DMM, spectrum analyzer)
Experience designing and implementing automated test systems for electronics
Understanding of sensors, signal conditioning, and data acquisition electronics
Familiarity with spacecraft harness design, build, and test best practices
3D CAD proficiency, preferably NX
RF testing and hardware-in-the-loop testing experience
Familiarity with IPC/J-STD workmanship standards and IPC Class 3 space applications
Launch site or launch campaign experience

Responsibilities

Integration & Test Lead and own integration and test campaigns at every level of spacecraft development — component, box, subsystem, and full vehicle
Define the test philosophy for the bus: what gets acceptance tested, what gets protoqualified, what qualifies by similarity, and how that philosophy holds up as we move from a one-off development unit to rate production
Develop acceptance, qualification, and R&D test plans for spacecraft systems, and drive them through execution and closure
Work with systems and subsystems leads to defining requirements and the verification and validation plans that close them
Develop, maintain, and operate environmental test systems — random vibration, TVAC, thermal cycling, EMI/EMC, mass properties
Design, build, and maintain mechanical and electrical ground support equipment (MGSE/EGSE) and the facilities that house it
Interface with ground test software, implement flight software configuration changes for test, and work hands-on with hardware-in-the-loop test systems
Own test data: what we record, how it's reviewed, what constitutes a pass, and how results get back to the responsible engineer
Assembly & Manufacturing Partner with Design Engineering to drive Design for Manufacture and Design for Test into the bus while the design is still moving — access, fastener reach, connector orientation, test point availability, handling and lift points
Design, procure, install, and validate assembly, test, and verification processes, including the tooling, fixtures, and work instructions behind them
Support development builds to surface early learnings and retire integration risk ahead of production ramp
Triage and diagnose failures, run deep technical investigations, and determine the path forward — containment, risk mitigation, and root cause resolution
Drive process improvements across manufacturing, test, and integration, with an explicit eye toward repeatability across many identical vehicles
Contribute to change management, assessing the risk and impact of design or process changes on build and test
Plan and specify the integration facility footprint as the program scales — clean room, integration bay, test cell, and the flow between them

Benefits

company equity
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
other discounts and perks
snacks, drip coffee & onsite barista, cold drinks, and dinner meals remaining free of charge
lunch subsidized