Sr. Principal Spacecraft Design Engineer, Project Sunrise Orbital Data Centers

BLUE ORIGIN•El Paso, TX

2d•$190,458 - $271,768

About The Position

This role is part of Advanced Concepts and Enterprise Engineering (ACE), supporting Blue Origin’s mission of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. The team fosters innovation and drives engineering workflows of the future, shared solutions and standards, simplicity and lower costs, and manufacturable design. Join Blue Origin as we build infrastructure in space for the benefit of Earth. We’re developing a satellite constellation of orbital data centers designed to transform how compute infrastructure is deployed and leveraged. As a Senior Principal Spacecraft Design Engineer, you will serve as the primary technical authority and owner for the end-to-end design of the spacecraft. You are a novel thinker, someone who does not rely solely on past experience, but finds new and innovative approaches to challenging engineering problems. You will be expected to operate with a high degree of autonomy, leading a multidisciplinary effort and making critical design decisions. This is a senior, hands-on leadership role that demands expert-level systems thinking, a deep understanding of engineering principles across multiple domains, and the ability to solve our most challenging technical problems while guiding a team of engineers.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field.
10+ years of progressive experience in the detailed design and analysis of complex mechanical systems.
Expert proficiency in 3D modeling and detailed design.
Extensive, hands-on experience designing, analyzing, and testing space mechanisms.
Strong fundamentals in mechanical engineering principles, including statics, dynamics, materials, and machine design.
Proven ability to lead technical projects and work independently with minimal supervision.

Nice To Haves

Master's or Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering or a related discipline.
Proven track record of leading the design of multiple flight hardware components or systems through the full product lifecycle.
Hands-on building, assembly, and manufacturing experience.
Experience with Model Based Definition (MBD) and its application in a production environment.
Familiarity or fluency with AI tools and their application for design optimization or analysis.
Bonus if you have an understanding of data center designs.
Expertise in Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) and its application to complex assemblies.
Experience with CREO
Experience with Finite Element Analysis (FEA) tools (e.g., ANSYS, NASTRAN) for structural analysis.

Responsibilities

Lead and own the entire spacecraft design and development, including power, thermal, compute, and communications systems, and identify novel solutions.
Directly perform hands-on, high-complexity design and modeling work in CREO to create detailed 3D models, component specifications, and production-level drawings.
Conduct and document trade studies to drive design decisions, optimize system architecture, and ensure requirement compliance.
Perform and guide structural, thermal, and tolerance analyses to validate design integrity and performance.
Comfortable managing engineers while staying deeply hands-on.
Develop and oversee the execution of verification and validation test campaigns for hardware, from component to system level.
Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including analysis, manufacturing, and electrical engineering, to deliver highly integrated and robust hardware solutions.
Present design concepts, analysis results, and technical recommendations to program leadership and key stakeholders.