Senior / Staff Build Reliability Engineer (Avionics)

Vast • Long Beach, CA

1d • $137,760 - $230,472 • Onsite

About The Position

Vast is looking for a Senior / Staff Build Reliability Engineer (Avionics), reporting to the Director of Build & Supplier Reliability, to support the reliability of flight avionics hardware across the product lifecycle for our human-rated space stations. This will be a full-time, exempt position located in our Long Beach location.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline or equivalent experience
• 12+ years of experience in quality, manufacturing, reliability, or design in aerospace, defense, or high-reliability hardware environments
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional initiatives with executive visibility and influence technical direction across organizations
• Excellent communication and technical leadership skills

Nice To Haves

• Proven track record of driving systemic improvements and shaping engineering strategy.
• Deep expertise in reliability engineering, quality systems, and standards (ISO 9001, AS9100, etc.)
• Mastery of advanced reliability and quality tools (RCA, FMEA, SPC, control plans); Six Sigma Black Belt or equivalent experience preferred
• Strong technical depth in avionics design, manufacturing, integration, and/or test

Responsibilities

• Own Build Reliability for avionics hardware and work centers, setting expectations for reliability, manufacturability, and build and flight readiness.
• Partner with Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality, Supply Chain, and Mission Assurance leadership to ensure robust, scalable quality and verification plans across the product lifecycle, with lessons consistently carried across programs.
• Ensure successful introduction of flight hardware by defining readiness criteria–including process qualification, manufacturability, and inspectability–and driving the retirement of build risks through production ramp-up.
• Drive maturation of internal avionics production processes, ensuring documentation, equipment, tooling, process controls, data collection, and training support consistent and streamlined execution.
• Ensure off-nominal work is performed and documented reliably. Partner with Mission Assurance to drive risk mitigations and steer response plans to severe issues. Provide leadership and technical direction for high-visibility issues, establishing recovery plans and aligning operations, quality, and engineering on execution.
• Collect and analyze build data to identify risk and recurring issues. Lead build quality reviews, generate data-driven recommendations, and effectively influence partner teams to prioritize efforts that prevent escapes and improve reliability.
• Lead containment and root-cause investigation of high-impact Avionics-related issues. Ensure implementation and verification of robust corrective actions that address root cause and systemic contributors across Vast.
• Lead major cost reduction initiatives through simplification of requirements, clearer design standards, streamlined inspection and process validation steps, and strengthened process controls.
• Mentor individuals and teams to elevate reliability capabilities across the company.

Benefits

• company equity
• medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents
• generous paid time off; up to 20+ days of vacation for exempt staff and up to 10+ days of vacation for non-exempt staff with the ability to cash-out unused vacation annually
• paid parental leave
• short and long-term disability insurance
• life insurance
• access to a 401(k) retirement plan
• ClassPass credits
• personalized mental healthcare through Spring Health
• other discounts and perks
• snacks, drip coffee & onsite barista, cold drinks, and dinner meals remaining free of charge
• lunch subsidized

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior