Head of Accurate Landing
About The Position
Inversion is an aerospace and defense company developing advanced reentry technology. Its Arc spacecraft is designed for rapid global cargo delivery, hypersonic testing, and national security missions. Inversion is headquartered in Los Angeles and designs, manufactures, and integrates its spacecraft under one roof. The Head of Arc Accurate Landing reports directly to the Chief Engineer of Arc and leads the creation, design, and development of the technology for autonomously and accurately landing a spacecraft. The role owns the technical development of the software stack, sensor and electrical design, GNC systems, and parachute and recovery hardware, from conceptual design through testing and deployment on production vehicles. This role leads a multidisciplinary organization and owns the technical architecture and delivery of Arc’s recoverable landing system. It is responsible for progressing the system through requirements, architecture, development, qualification, vehicle integration, flight readiness, and recovery operations, as well as leading Drop Test Vehicle planning and test campaigns. The position is based in Playa Vista, California, and requires in-office presence.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent technical experience.
- Typically 10+ years of hands-on experience in complex vehicle development, hardware integration, and environmental testing.
- Typically 3+ years of engineering leadership experience, including responsibility for multidisciplinary teams and technical delivery.
- Demonstrated ownership of a complex system through design, integration, qualification, and flight or field operations.
- Deep technical competency in at least one relevant area: parachutes or aerodynamic decelerators; Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC); aerospace mechanisms; flight avionics or autonomous systems; or vehicle-level test and qualification.
- Experience leading hardware-rich development and flight-test campaigns with high consequence of failure.
- Proven ability to make sound technical and resource decisions under aggressive schedules and incomplete information.
- Demonstrated excellent verbal and written communication skills.
- Proven ability to work effectively in a fast-paced environment.
- Must have the ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government Secret/Top Secret security clearance.
Nice To Haves
- Master’s degree or Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.
- Direct experience developing or testing parachutes, parafoils, guided recovery systems, airborne systems, or precision-landing vehicles.
- Experience with spacecraft, launch vehicles, reentry systems, hypersonic vehicles, or high-reliability defense hardware.
- Experience planning and operating aerial drop tests, including range coordination, aviation assets, telemetry, recovery, and operational safety.
- Experience with parachute deployment dynamics, inflation loads, descent modeling, guidance, navigation, control, and Monte Carlo analysis.
- Experience developing mechanisms involving pyrotechnic, pneumatic, spring-loaded, or other high-reliability actuation.
- Familiarity with SIL, HIL, flight-data analysis, environmental qualification, and hardware acceptance testing.
- Experience managing external suppliers for parachutes, fabrics, mechanisms, avionics, test aircraft, or flight-test services.
- Experience building an engineering organization in a fast-paced startup or similarly resource-constrained environment.
Responsibilities
- Lead the Accurate Landing organization, including mechanical, GNC, avionics, software, systems, and test engineers.
- Own the technical architecture and delivery of Arc’s recoverable landing system.
- Deliver the landing system from requirements and architecture through development, qualification, vehicle integration, flight readiness, and recovery operations.
- Own the Drop Test Vehicle roadmap and ground and aerial test campaigns to mature parachutes, mechanisms, avionics, software, range safety, and field operations.
- Establish verification strategy, qualification plans, flight-readiness criteria, and technical margins for the complete landing sequence.
- Lead system-level trades across landing accuracy, deployment reliability, structural loads, descent rate, mass, power, volume, operability, and schedule.
- Build and develop the Accurate Landing team, including hiring, organizational design, performance management, succession planning, and development of future technical and people leaders.
- Create a culture of disciplined test execution, operational safety, technical rigor, and rapid learning.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
