Early Career Machine Controls & Instrumentation Engineer

Karman Industries

Karman Industries is a Torrance-based thermal technology company building the backbone for giga-scale AI infrastructure. Founded by a team from SpaceX, Rocket Lab, and GE, Karman is moving beyond legacy cooling with the launch of the HPU (Heat Processing Unit)—a new category of thermal architecture designed for the 100kW+ rack era.

The HPU shrinks the exterior mechanical yard by up to 80% while reducing peak energy consumption by 10%+. Unlike traditional systems, the Karman HPU provides zero-water (WUE 0) cooling that ensures high-TDP GPUs and HBM4 memory stay at optimal thermal setpoints without throttling.

Founded in 2024, we’re a fast-growing team of passionate professionals dedicated to making a tangible impact on the future of humanity. We design, build, and test real hardware, and we lead with ownership: you’ll own your work from concept to hardware and help shape how we scale. Our values are Ownership, Performance Excellence, Radical Transparency, and Customer-Centricity.

Join us in our mission to transform the industry and contribute to a more sustainable world.

Machine Controls and Instrumentation Engineer

Karman Industries is seeking a motivated early career engineer to join our team to help bring our control systems from whiteboard ideas to deployed units running at customer sites. You’ll join an experienced, hands-on team with a direct role in all facets of industrial controls engineering. As an early career position, you will have the opportunity to develop a skillset that is required of all machinery. This is not a glorified internship, from day one you will have ownership over PLC programming, instrument selection, process control development and modeling, electrical design and integration, and myriad other responsibilities. You will also quickly gain experience with hands-on integration, troubleshooting, and commissioning activities.

Responsibilities:

• Work with systems engineers and controls engineers to understand the intended operation of Karman machinery. Translate these understandings into state machines, cause & effect diagrams, control narratives, and instrument lists.

• Size and select instruments for use in high pressure and high temperature thermal systems.

• Partner with internal and external partners to design electrical schematics and control panels.

• Program and test PLC/IPC software.

• Develop HMI dashboards.

• Install, wire, and troubleshoot instruments and control panels.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace engineering, or a related discipline

• Some experience with computer programming.

• Strong problem-solving instincts and a genuine interest in controls engineering as a career path.
  Ability to work on-site and travel occasionally to customer sites for commissioning support

Karman Industries is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Karman Industries is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

Direct applicants only — we are not working with outside recruiters or agencies for this role.

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