Mechanical Engineer

Mechanical & Structural Engineer

H9 are currently working with an incredibly exciting business who are looking for a Mechanical & Structural Engineer with 5+ years of experience to join as a founding engineer and own the entire mechanical and structural discipline of our compute-native satellites.

You'll be the linchpin responsible for designing the physical satellite — primary structure, deployable solar arrays, and radiator mechanisms — that make orbital AI inference possible. This is a ground-floor opportunity to work shoulder-to-shoulder with the company's founding thermal/power systems engineer, guiding designs with contract manufacturers as we push toward our groundbreaking missions in 2027/2028. They need someone with real spacecraft flight experience who can be a driving force and carry true ownership of this critical engineering domain.

What will you be doing?

• Designing the physical satellite structure alongside contract manufacturers — daily collaboration, design iteration, troubleshooting, and trade-off decisions on cost, weight, and efficiency
• Owning deployable systems (solar arrays and radiators) — designing mechanisms that fold into the satellite bus and reliably unfold in orbit with no second chances
• Running and parsing structural analysis (FEA, modal analysis, launch loads, vibration) — coordinating with manufacturing partners and providing informed opinions on results
• Solving radiation shielding challenges to protect GPUs in orbit, working with materials like aluminum, titanium, silicon, and composites
• Translating Orbital's constellation-scale mission into actionable engineering requirements that guide external partners through early design phases

Desirable Software Experience:

ABAQUS, ANSYS, NASTRAN, FEA, CAD, CFRP (Mix of these software packages).

What is on offer?

· Salary $160,000-$180,000 per annum

· Equity options

· Strong benefits package