Principal Propulsion Engineer- Components

Varda Space Industries•El Segundo, CA

1d•$181,913 - $232,444•Onsite

About The Position

Varda is hiring an experienced Principal Propulsion Engineer to own and develop fluid components for the W-Series satellite bus and future vehicles. The propulsion system uses high-test hydrogen peroxide and hydrocarbon bipropellant, high-pressure inert-gas pressurization, and cold-gas attitude control. Components include valves, regulators, burst disks, filters, manifolds, and instrumentation such as pressure transducers and RTDs. The role has significant responsibility for mission-critical components, from requirements and specifications through design, qualification, production, and flight. The engineer will serve as a technical interface to suppliers and help determine which components to purchase and which to design in-house. For Varda-owned components, the role includes detailed design and establishing capabilities for development, qualification, production, acceptance testing, and flight. This is a hands-on position within a multidisciplinary engineering team. Work includes test-stand development and operation, production-floor support, supplier visits, vehicle build and integration, flight operations, and investigations of issues or anomalies. The role is on-site in El Segundo, California, with supplier and test-site travel typically under 10% of the time. U.S.-person status is required because the role involves access to export-controlled items.

Requirements

B.S. in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related discipline; equivalent professional experience is considered.
At least 6 years of hands-on experience designing, qualifying, or owning fluid components for spacecraft, launch vehicles, or comparable high-pressure hardware, on the vehicle or component-supplier side.
Working understanding of component design fundamentals, including sealing, force balance, spring sizing, friction, flow paths, materials compatibility, material finishes, and wear.
Mechanical design proficiency, including CAD, assembly management using PLM software, detailed drawings with GD&T per ASME Y14.5, and tolerance analysis.
Experience with component pressure and leak testing and ATP/QTP execution per SMC-S-016 or an equivalent standard, including procedure authoring and establishing pass/fail criteria.
Hands-on experience building and testing pressurized hardware alongside technicians.
Proven technical ownership, including driving nonconformances and anomalies to root cause and corrective action across teams and suppliers.
Willingness to travel to suppliers and test sites as needed, typically less than 10% of the time.
U.S.-person status as defined in the job posting, due to access to export-controlled items.

Nice To Haves

At least 10 years of spacecraft or launch-vehicle fluid-component experience, including clean-sheet design of a valve, regulator, or similar component through qualification and flight.
Experience with low-leakage, on-orbit propulsion components and HTP, other strong oxidizers, or high-pressure gas systems.
Component-analysis skills, including FEA of pressure-containing parts, 1D fluid-network modeling, valve dynamics, and fatigue and fracture control.
Electromechanical and instrumentation fundamentals, including solenoid-valve coil and driver interfaces and pressure-transducer and RTD calibration, excitation, and error budgets.
Supplier-management experience for COTS and build-to-print aerospace components, including source selection, audits, and data-package review.
Familiarity with AIAA S-080 and S-081 and AFSPCMAN 91-710 range-safety requirements.
Knowledge of precision manufacturing and inspection for fluid hardware, including machining and deburring, welding, electropolish, precision cleaning, CMM, and NDE.
Experience establishing propulsion-component testing capabilities for development, qualification, and ATP, particularly in a high-cadence, high-throughput environment.
Experience leading a technical sub-discipline, formally or informally, and developing engineering standards within a propulsion organization.
Exceptional technical communication skills and precision in specifications, test procedures, data-package reviews, and engineering memos.

Responsibilities

Serve as responsible engineer for a significant portion of the bus propulsion component portfolio, from requirements and specifications through development, qualification, production, and flight.
Design Varda-owned propulsion components, including CAD, detailed drawings with GD&T per ASME Y14.5, tolerance analysis, seal and spring design, and supporting structural and fluid analysis.
Specify, source, and qualify purchased components; lead technical supplier interactions, review qualification and acceptance data, and drive corrective action or second sourcing.
Author and execute acceptance and qualification test campaigns per SMC-S-016; characterize component performance across pressure and temperature envelopes, inform system requirements, and document results in test reports.
Support vehicle build, integration, testing, and flight operations; disposition nonconformances and lead component issue or anomaly investigations through root cause and closure.
Represent components in design reviews, FMEAs, hazard analyses, and range-safety interactions; contribute to component knowledge bases, qualification records, and lessons learned.
Mentor engineers and help establish component design and test standards.
Support hands-on test-stand development and operations, production-floor activities, supplier visits, and issue or anomaly investigations as required.