Senior Automation & Controls Engineer

Varda Space•El Segundo, CA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

Varda is developing commercial space infrastructure, including in-orbit pharmaceutical processing and reentry capsules. The company designs, builds, and operates its spacecraft, payloads, heat shields, and satellite buses in-house. Varda is headquartered in El Segundo, California, with additional offices in Washington, DC, and Huntsville, Alabama. The Senior Automation & Controls Engineer builds bespoke test infrastructure to qualify spaceflight hardware for orbit. The role designs, builds, and owns ground support equipment (GSE) and test systems, including propulsion test stands, environmental qualification chambers, and spacecraft-level integration testing. The engineer works with Varda’s in-house PLC framework and Beckhoff EtherCAT tooling, contributes to architecture decisions, and helps define engineering standards. This is an on-site role in El Segundo, California. The role partners with propulsion, avionics, GNC, and manufacturing teams to deliver test infrastructure, taking systems from electrical design through commissioning. The company offers stock options and/or long-term cash awards as incentives. Applicants must meet Varda’s U.S.-person eligibility requirement because the position involves access to export-controlled items.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related technical field.
At least 5 years of industry experience in test automation, controls, and/or industrial automation.
Hands-on experience integrating industrial hardware using protocols such as EtherCAT, Modbus (TCP/RTU), RS-232/485 serial, or similar communication standards.
Experience with at least one modern PLC ecosystem, ideally Beckhoff TwinCAT 3 with structured text (IEC 61131-3), or demonstrated eagerness to develop deep expertise in it.
Ability to work across the full stack, including electrical-panel design, cabinet wiring, hardware debugging, and control-software development.
Ability to thrive in a fast-paced startup environment with shifting priorities and expected end-to-end ownership.
Must qualify as a U.S. person under the stated export-control eligibility requirement.

Nice To Haves

Strong judgment about when to use real-time PLC code versus higher-level Python orchestration, and understanding of the tradeoffs.
Experience with custom or in-house control frameworks rather than relying solely on vendor-provided stacks.
Advanced EtherCAT expertise, including DC sync, ENI configuration, master implementation, or driver-level work.
Production experience with TwinCAT 3, structured text, and the broader IEC 61131-3 language suite.
Experience designing deterministic, hard real-time control loops with sub-millisecond cycle times.
Familiarity with time-series data acquisition and visualization tools such as Grafana and InfluxDB.
Aerospace experience, particularly spacecraft testing or GSE development.
Environmental testing experience, including TVAC, thermal cycling, and vibration testing.
Hands-on experience with high-pressure gas or fluid systems.
Experience developing propulsion test stands or other complex, multi-subsystem test infrastructure.
Familiarity with spacecraft qualification standards and related documentation requirements.
Experience developing safety-related control systems and evaluating proposed solutions to reduce safety-related risks.

Responsibilities

Design, build, and maintain test systems and ground support equipment for flight-hardware qualification and manufacturing operations.
Integrate external hardware such as thermal vacuum chambers, ovens, chillers, pressure systems, data-acquisition hardware, and precision instrumentation.
Develop and extend Varda’s internal PLC framework and EtherCAT tooling to support program needs.
Contribute to architecture decisions for real-time control, including evaluation of PLC-based (TwinCAT 3) and Linux-based approaches for high-frequency control applications.
Build cabinets, wire panels, and own systems end-to-end from electrical design through commissioning.
Partner with propulsion, avionics, GNC, and manufacturing teams to deliver test infrastructure on aggressive timelines.
Promote sustainable engineering practices that help new engineers ramp up on the technology stack and support reliable production-system maintenance.