Senior Materials and Process Engineer

Varda Space•El Segundo, CA

23h•Onsite

About The Position

Varda is developing commercial space infrastructure, including in-orbit pharmaceutical processing and reentry capsules. Its W-Series vehicles and their payloads, capsules, C-PICA heat shields, and satellite buses are designed, built, and operated in-house. The company aims to expand the orbital economy and enable space-manufactured products to benefit life on Earth. Varda is headquartered in El Segundo, California, with additional offices in Washington, DC, and Huntsville, Alabama. As Senior Materials and Process Engineer, you will define and qualify materials and special processes for reentry vehicles as Varda scales from bespoke builds to consistent, concurrent production. You will own the development, qualification, and control of flight-hardware processes spanning ablative and thermal protection systems, coatings, polymers, composites, adhesives, wet chemical processing, corrosion control, and metallic structures. You will author specifications, process qualification records, and control plans; lead root-cause corrective actions (RCCAs), material review board (MRB) activity, and failure investigations; and apply statistical methods to establish process windows and acceptance criteria. The role requires sound, timely decisions in an environment without established infrastructure, influence across teams, and mentoring and hiring engineers. You will work directly with design engineers, technicians, and suppliers to improve the quality and repeatability of every vehicle. The role is on-site in El Segundo, California. Applicants must meet the stated U.S.-person requirement for access to export-controlled items.

Requirements

B.S. in Materials Science, Metallurgical, Chemical, Mechanical, or a related engineering discipline, or demonstrated equivalent experience and expertise.
At least 3 years of materials and process engineering experience in aerospace, semiconductor, or another high-reliability industry.
Demonstrated experience developing and qualifying materials and processes for flight or safety-critical hardware, including first-article builds and compliance with industry standards such as AWS, AMS, or ASTM.
Experience authoring and releasing specifications, design guidance, acceptance criteria, and drawing callouts used by an organization and its suppliers.
Experience with thermal, chemical, mechanical, and NDE characterization, including interpreting results to define process windows.
Deep expertise in at least one of the following: ablatives and TPS; composites; polymers and adhesives; coatings and surface treatment; wet chemical processing and corrosion control; welding metallurgy; heat treat; additive manufacturing; or NDE.
Experience with aerospace metals such as stainless steel, aluminum, titanium, and nickel alloys, and their processing, including heat treatment, welding, brazing, and finishing.
Experience with corrosion mechanisms including galvanic, crevice, pitting, stress corrosion, and hydrogen embrittlement, as well as chemical compatibility of materials with process fluids and service environments.
Experience developing and controlling wet chemical processes, including bath chemistry, rinse and water-quality requirements, precision cleaning, cleanliness verification, and work with hazardous, reactive, or oxidizing fluids.
Proficiency in applied statistical methods, including DOE, SPC, process capability, measurement system analysis, regression, and statistical tolerancing; experience establishing statistically based material allowables, acceptance criteria, and sampling plans such as A-basis and B-basis.
Experience leading RCCAs, failure analysis, and material dispositions, including selecting and interpreting laboratory methods such as fractography, metallography, SEM/EDS, and chemical analysis, and leading cross-functional investigations.
Experience developing control plans and special processes and leading PFMEAs.
Experience setting materials and process requirements for the space environment, including outgassing and contamination control, electrical bonding and grounding, thermal cycling, and UV exposure.
Strong technical writing skills, including writing specifications, test reports, and investment cases.
Ability to make sound decisions quickly without established infrastructure, influence material decisions owned by other teams, and hire and mentor engineers.
Must be physically able to regularly lift 25 lbs., bend, stoop, and stand for extended periods while working directly with flight hardware.
Must meet the stated U.S.-person eligibility requirement to access export-controlled items.

Nice To Haves

M.S. or Ph.D. in Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, or a related discipline.
Experience with ablative, thermal protection, and thermal barrier materials for reentry, hypersonic, or propulsion applications, including arc-jet, thermal-conductivity, recession, and char-behavior characterization.
Experience with polymer and composite processing at scale, including cure-cycle development, cure kinetics, and void and porosity control.
Experience with spacecraft thermal-control and finishing systems, including MLI films, metallizations, anodize per MIL-A-8625, conversion coating per MIL-DTL-5541, plating, and fluoropolymer coatings, and their effects on bonding and outgassing.
Experience designing, qualifying, or specifying wet-process lines and high-purity water systems, including waste handling and EHS compliance.
Experience with high-test peroxide systems, including compatibility classes, passivation and conditioning, stabilizer and contaminant effects, catalyst-bed materials, active-oxygen-loss testing, decomposition modeling, and diagnosis of elevated decomposition or corrosion.
Experience with other strong oxidizers and hypergols, including LOX, N2O, N2O4/MON, and hydrazines; oxygen-service cleaning standards such as ASTM G93, G88, and IEST-STD-CC1246; and oxidizer-compatible polymers, elastomers, and lubricants.
Experience with pharmaceutical or bioprocess materials, including product-contact selection, ASME BPE, extractables and leachables, USP Class VI / ISO 10993, cleaning validation, and potent-compound containment.
Experience developing accelerated corrosion test programs and correlating results to service environments.
Experience with advanced statistical methods such as Bayesian, mixed-effects, Weibull, and Monte Carlo methods, and advanced characterization such as XRD, CT, and XPS.
Experience scaling processes to production build rates and qualifying and auditing special-process suppliers, such as NADCAP suppliers.
Experience building a materials and processes function, including an approved materials and processes list, a materials usage agreement process, and an in-house materials lab.
Recognized subject-matter expertise and a record of setting technical direction and standards beyond a single program, such as cross-discipline chief-engineer or standards roles, publications, patents, or standards-committee participation.

Responsibilities

Develop, qualify, and maintain special processes for flight hardware, including ablative and thermal protection systems (TPS), coatings, polymers, composites, adhesives, and processes for metallic structures.
Develop and control wet chemical processes such as cleaning, etching, passivation, and conversion coating; implement corrosion prevention and control practices; and assess chemical compatibility among materials, process fluids, and service environments.
Design experiments, methodologies, and pathfinder hardware to de-risk processes; characterize materials and processes through mechanical, thermal, chemical, and microstructural testing; and use statistical methods to define process windows.
Define tooling, fixture, test equipment, cleanliness, contamination-control, and material-handling requirements for assigned processes and flight hardware.
Develop and maintain Special Process Specifications, Process Qualification and Validation Records, and Control Plans.
Lead and contribute to RCCAs, MRB activity, and failure review boards for material and process non-conformances, including corrosion, surface contamination, and defects identified through NDE, testing, or inspection.
Conduct or coordinate failure analysis, including fractography, metallography, SEM/EDS, and chemical analysis, in-house or through partner laboratories.
Influence material decisions across teams and help hire and mentor engineers.
Improve the quality and repeatability of vehicles while supporting increased build cadence.