Senior Mechanical Engineer, Thermal Control Systems

At Vast our mission is to contribute to a future where billions of people are living and thriving in space. We are building artificial gravity space stations allowing longterm stays in space without the adverse effects of zerogravity. Our initial crewed space habitat will be Haven1 scheduled to be the worlds first commercial space station when it launches into low earth orbit in May 2026. Our team is allin committed to executing our mission safely and on you want to work with the most talented people on Earth furthering space exploration for humanity come join us.

Vast is looking for a Senior Mechanical Engineer Thermal Control Systems reporting to the Manager Thermal Control Hardware to support the development of the systems that will be required for the design and build of artificialgravity humanrated space stations.

This will be a fulltime exempt position located in our Long Beach CA location.

Responsibilities:

• Own the design and development of thermal control system and components for our artificialgravity space station from initial design trades to fully functional and validated system
• Iterate on manufacturing processes and development testing in a fastpaced environment
• Own the project delivery timeline from early design through production launch and orbit insertion
• Perform systems engineering tasks and fluid analyses
• Lead design reviews internally and externally with suppliers and customers
• Work with interdisciplinary stakeholders to ensure the component will integrate with the necessary avionics software and mission operations systems
• Make sure that all designs are manufacturable and reliable
• Bring technical excellence to everything you do

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelors degree in mechanical engineering or other engineering discipline
• Experience working with fluid systems or components
• 5 years of handson hardware experience performing fabrication assembly and/or testing

Preferred Skills & Experience:

• 4 years of experience working with fluid systems or components
• Demonstrated ability to own hardware or systems within an integrated engineering team outside a classroom setting
• 4 years of handson hardware experience performing fabrication assembly and/or testing
• Proactive problemsolving skills such as failure analysis root cause investigation and design of experiment creation
• Ability to perform trade studies using first principles and engineering fundamentals to make clear recommendations even with partial information
• Experience with rotating machinery
• Experienced in NX
• Solid understanding and application of geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) and tolerance stackup analysis
• Experience with structural analysis methods (hand calcs FEMAP ANSYS) in order to optimize hardware to strength requirements as well as to evaluate for life and fracture
• Knowledge of metallic and fluid system manufacturing techniques processes equipment and other processes such as machining welding brazing tube bending etc.
• Able to work well in an integrated collaborative team environment including frequent interactions with technicians other engineers and managers
• Highly selfmotivated with strong organizational and written/oral communication skills able to prioritize and execute tasks in a highpressure environment with the ongoing drive for continuous improvement in all aspects of work

Additional Requirements:

• Ability to travel up to 10% of the time
• Willingness to work evenings and/or weekends to support critical mission milestones
• Ability to lift up to 25lbs unassisted

Pay Range:

• Senior Mechanical Engineer: $135800 $176400

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY