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Vast · 2 weeks ago

Staff Design Reliability Engineer

Long Beach, CA

Full-time

Onsite

Senior Level, Lead/Staff

$159K/yr - $206K/yr

10+ years exp

Vast is dedicated to advancing space exploration by building artificial gravity space stations. The Staff Design Reliability Engineer will lead technical reviews and oversee qualification and testing for flight systems, ensuring robust and reliable engineering practices.

Defense & Space

Culture & Values

No H1B

U.S. Citizen Only

Responsibilities

Technical Leadership: Lead the technical reviews that shape the future of artificial-gravity space habitats—providing clear, decisive guidance during milestone design reviews and major risk gates

Oversee qualification and test completeness for flight systems, ensuring our test campaigns are robust, disciplined, and aligned with human-rated reliability

Bring deep engineering intuition to test campaigns, identifying risks early and helping teams converge on safe, resilient solutions

Evaluate complex design and operational changes, safeguarding technical integrity as the system evolves

Design Excellence: Serve as the architect and guardian of Vast’s engineering standards, design guides, and review frameworks—tools that enable fast, confident decision-making across the company

Make engineering best practices accessible and actionable, especially for engineers moving rapidly under ambitious program timelines

Support and elevate engineering teams across the organization by bringing broad experience in design, build cycles, integration, and test

Turn organizational knowledge into lasting guidance by capturing lessons learned and strengthening future standards

Process Ownership: Build and steward the processes that ensure engineering rigor at scale—ensuring designs meet standards, reviews are comprehensive, and changes are consistently implemented

Own and continuously refine design review templates, reliability checklists, and internal design guides

Track design maturity and compliance across the station and vehicle architecture, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks

Build tools, frameworks, and automation that empower engineers to explore design trade-offs and risks with clarity and speed

Cross-Functional Influence: Work across all facets of the engineering organization to improve reliability

Partner with configuration and change management so that every update to flight hardware is intentional, reviewed, and fully understood

Partner with the internal software team to ensure system data, configuration details, and design decisions are well organized and accessible

Qualification

Mechanical EngineeringAerospace EngineeringSystems EngineeringReliability EngineeringDesign ReviewsTest EngineeringData AnalysisCommunicatorCollaborative LeaderContinuous Learning

Required

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related field

10+ years of experience in responsible engineering, design ownership, systems integration, test engineering, or reliability-focused development

Demonstrated experience conducting design reviews, qualification reviews, or major change assessments

Strong communicator and collaborative leader with high emotional intelligence, diplomacy, and the ability to influence at all levels

Resilient, curious, and committed to continuous learning in fast-paced or high-pressure environments

Willingness to work overtime, or weekends to support critical mission milestones

Preferred

Experience in Responsible Engineering, Systems Engineering, or Reliability Engineering roles on complex aerospace systems

Hands-on experience designing, assembling, integrating, or testing hardware

Background with spacecraft, aircraft, launch vehicles, or other mission- or safety-critical systems

Familiarity with fracture control, reliability methodologies, or human-rated hardware standards

Experience creating engineering standards, review templates, or technical guidance frameworks

Strong scripting and data analysis skills (Python, MATLAB, Excel) and familiarity with visualization tools (e.g., Tableau)

Knowledge of manufacturing processes, materials selection, and hardware qualification pathways

Strong systems-level intuition and the ability to anticipate and articulate risks early

Benefits

100% medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents

Flexible paid time off for exempt staff and up to 10 days of vacation for non-exempt staff

Paid parental leave

Short and long-term disability insurance

Life insurance

Access to a 401(k) retirement plan

One Medical membership

ClassPass credits

Personalized mental healthcare through Spring Health

Other discounts and perks

Exceptional food perks, with snacks, drip coffee, cold drinks, and dinner meals remaining free of charge

Lunch subsidized as part of Vast’s ongoing commitment to providing high-quality meals for employees

Company

Vast

Vast is developing next-generation space stations to ensure continuous human presence in space for America and its allies, enabling advanced microgravity research and manufacturing, and unlocking a new space economy for government, corporate, and private customers.

Founded in 2021

Long Beach, California, US

501-1000 employees