Mechanical Engineer, Interiors

Vast • Long Beach, CA

74d • $110,000 - $176,400

About The Position

At Vast, our mission is to contribute to a future where billions of people are living and thriving in space. We are building artificial gravity space stations, allowing long-term stays in space without the adverse effects of zero-gravity. Our initial crewed space habitat will be Haven-1, scheduled to be the world’s first commercial space station when it launches into low earth orbit in May 2026. 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. As an Interior Mechanical Engineer on our Structures team, you’ll design, engineer, test, and produce soft goods (textiles, closeouts, cargo packaging and restraint systems, upholstery, coverings, bedding, etc.) for human occupied modules. You will work closely with industrial designers, human factors, structural, and structural engineering to ensure these components are safe, comfortable, durable, manufacturable, and compatible with space habitat constraints. You will own major subsystem deliverables, from early concept through qualification, ensuring that materials and designs meet performance, safety, weight, volume, and maintainability requirements. You will need to balance competing constraints (mass, reliability, serviceability, safety, cost, manufacturability) under deep uncertainty and tight schedules. This will be a full-time, exempt position located in our Long Beach location.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree (or higher) in Mechanical Engineering, or related engineering discipline.
• Relevant mechanical design engineering project experience on a university or professional level.
• 2+ years experience with CAD and FEA software packages.
• Engineering fundamentals in problem solving & strong hands-on skills.
• Excellent communication skills; ability to synthesize inputs across teams (industrial design, human factors, structural, safety, manufacturing).
• Comfort working in ambiguity; ability to move fast, take ownership, and deliver under tight schedule constraints.

Nice To Haves

• 3‑5 years of engineering experience with soft goods, textiles, or fabric structures — ideally in aerospace, vehicle interiors, safety equipment.
• Knowledge of soft good manufacturing processes (upholstery, coating, laminates, bonding, sewing, foam routing).
• Experience with environmental qualification (structural, thermal cycling, radiation, UV).

Responsibilities

• Work cross functionally to define requirements for interior subsystems according to habitat architecture and crew use.
• Work with the design team to select and validate materials: textiles, foams, fabrics, coatings, insulation, etc., considering off‑gassing, flame resistance, thermal cycling, wear, cleaning/sterilization, etc.
• Create and iterate designs: sketching, CAD, prototyping, physical mockups, build fabrication, lab testing.
• Collaborate with engineering teams to ensure integration: attachment details, interfaces, anchoring, interfaces with rigid structures, loads in dynamic and static cases.
• Develop test plans, test fixtures, qualification test campaigns, and perform or oversee testing (mechanical loads, fatigue, abrasion, environmental exposure).
• Work with suppliers and manufacturing to translate designs into manufacturable products, specify tolerances, quality assurance, inspections.
• Document design decisions, analysis, drawings, specifications; maintain material tracker.

Benefits

• 100% medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents.
• Flexible paid time off for exempt staff and up to 10 days of vacation for non-exempt staff.
• Paid parental leave.
• Short and long-term disability insurance.
• Life insurance.
• Access to a 401(k) retirement plan.
• One Medical membership.
• ClassPass credits.
• Personalized mental healthcare through Spring Health.
• Other discounts and perks.
• Exceptional food perks, with snacks, drip coffee, cold drinks, and dinner meals remaining free of charge, and lunch subsidized.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: Bachelor's degree
• Number of Employees: 501-1,000 employees