Varda Space Industries · 17 hours ago
Director, Hosted Payload Engineering
El Segundo, California, United States
Full-time
Onsite
Director/Executive
$175K/yr - $223K/yr
10+ years expVarda is a company focused on accelerating the development of commercial space infrastructure. As the Director of Hosted Payload Engineering, you will lead the engineering execution of hypersonic reentry testbed payload and microgravity hosted payload missions, ensuring the successful delivery of flight hardware that operates in orbit and survives reentry.
AerospaceManufacturingProduct Design
No H1B
U.S. Citizen Only
Responsibilities
Build and lead a team of payload responsible engineers to execute hosted payload missions
Mentor engineers and develop future technical and people leaders
Define and maintain standards for payload design, analysis, integration, testing, mission execution, documentation, and project management
Work closely with avionics, software, thermal, systems, integration, and vehicle teams to define payload interfaces and constraints
Maintain and evolve the Payload User Guide (PUG) and product offering to balance reliable execution, increasing mission cadence, and customer capture
Partner with BD and Mission Management on technical sales, customer and payload provider onboarding, and program execution
Establish and maintain standards for payload engineer communication with government and commercial customers
Own hosted payload engineering execution against company goals and contractual commitments, including schedule, cost, and technical performance
Drive continuous improvement through lessons learned and feedback from flight programs
Qualification
Required
BS/BEng in Mechanical, Aerospace, Mechatronics, or a related engineering discipline
10+ years of experience designing, integrating, testing, and delivering complex electromechanical hardware
3+ years of experience leading teams through full cycle electromechanical space flight hardware development
Deep mechanical expertise with breadth in at least two adjacent disciplines (avionics, software, thermal, optics, test, etc.)
Demonstrated ability to set technical direction and deliver results through other engineers
Exceptional communication ability with diverse technical and executive audiences, both internal and external
Ability to travel up to 15% (domestic and international)
Ability to obtain Secret or Top Secret security clearance
Preferred
Experience building, scaling, or managing customer-facing hardware teams
Experience owning or contributing to technical roadmaps or standardized product offerings
Experience establishing and enforcing technical and programmatic standards across teams
Significant experience planning and executing aerospace environmental testing (vibration, TVAC, EMI/EMC)
Experience leading teams executing on multiple concurrent technical programs for government customers
Active Secret or Top Secret security clearance
Benefits
Equity in a fully funded space startup with potential for significant growth (interns excluded)
401(k) matching (interns excluded)
Unlimited PTO (interns excluded)
Health insurance, including Vision and Dental
Lunch and snacks provided on site every day. Dinners provided twice a week.
Maternity / Paternity leave (interns excluded)
Company
Varda Space Industries
Varda is building the infrastructure for a thriving orbital economy, from in-orbit pharmaceutical processing to reliable and economical reentry capsules.
51-200 employees
Funding
Current Stage
Growth StageTotal Funding
$328.02MKey Investors
Alumni VenturesCaffeinated CapitalKhosla Ventures
2025-07-10Series C· $187M
2024-12-19Series C
2024-04-05Series B· $90M
Leadership Team
Will Bruey
Chief Executive Officer
Recent News
Business Insider
2025-12-25
2025-12-17
Company data provided by crunchbase