VP of Engineering, Vehicle

Outpost•Los Angeles, CA

5h•Onsite

About The Position

Outpost is developing reusable vehicles to return payloads from space to precise Earth locations, aiming to establish exologistics at a planetary scale. The company is rapidly expanding, with validated demand through defense, civil, and commercial agreements. The VP of Engineering, Vehicle will be responsible for the vision, execution, and culture of Outpost’s vehicle portfolio, which includes the Carryall orbital return vehicle and the Airdrop atmospheric precision delivery system, with the goal of bringing both to operational status at scale. This role reports to the CTO and will collaborate with the VPs of Engineering for Product, Production, and Software. This is a significant opportunity to take ownership as the top day-to-day technical authority across all vehicles at Outpost. The VP will make critical architectural decisions impacting performance, schedule, and cost, while also building the processes and culture for vehicle design, build, test, and operation as the company grows. The overarching mission is to create the infrastructure for reliable material return from orbit to Earth, and this role offers the chance to shape both the vehicles and the organization making this future possible.

Requirements

Bachelor's or higher in Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical, or Systems Engineering
10+ year's experience, spanning the full life cycle of space vehicle and spacecraft development
Demonstrated operational technical authority on a complete vehicle program from architecture through flight and anomaly resolution
Track record building and scaling multi-disciplinary engineering orgs of 50+ through Directors and Principal ICs
Deep system-level fluency across mass, power, GNC, structural loads, and thermal environments
Experience bridging R&D and manufacturing (DFM, travelers, acceptance criteria, LRIP)

Nice To Haves

Active U.S. Government Security Clearance
Reentry vehicles, hypersonics, precision aerial delivery, or autonomous recovery systems
FAR/DFARS, OTA, or NASA safety and mission assurance fluency
Venture-backed or rapid-growth aerospace experience

Responsibilities

Full accountability for schedule, technical performance, and budget across Carryall and Airdrop; call the hard scope, risks schedule and make/buy trade-offs
Hire, develop, and manage engineering leaders across all vehicle disciplines; set the standard for technical excellence, ownership, and pace
Own architecture implementation, interface control, and performance envelopes; enforce design standards, margin policy, and flight readiness criteria; chair PDR, CDR, TRR, and CoFR reviews
Own Material Review Board /Failure Reporting, Analysis, and Corrective Action System rigor, oversight of test planning and execution
Establish DFM, QMS, configuration management, and acceptance criteria to move Carryall and Airdrop from development into LRIP and fleet-scale production.
Own make/buy and supplier strategy across propulsion, avionics, TPS, and recovery subsystems
Represent vehicle engineering to the CEO, Board, customers, and government stakeholders; align execution with Programs, BD, and Operations