Senior Build Reliability Engineer New El Segundo, California, United States

Low Earth orbit is open for business. Varda is accelerating the development of commercial space infrastructure, from in-orbit pharmaceutical processing to reliable and economical reentry capsules. Varda’s W-Series vehicles are built, designed, and operated by Varda in-house, including the pharmaceutical processing payloads, the capsules, the C-PICA heat shields, and the satellite buses.

From life-saving pharmaceuticals to more powerful fiber optics, there is a world of products used on Earth today that can only be manufactured in space. Varda is accelerating innovation in the orbital economy by creating both the products and infrastructure needed so space can directly benefit life on Earth. Our mission is to expand the economic bounds of humankind.

Our team is uniquely suited to accomplishing this goal, with leadership and staff comprised of veterans from SpaceX, Blue Origin, major pharmaceutical companies and Silicon Valley. Varda was founded in January 2021 by Will Bruey and Delian Asparouhov with significant backing from world class investors including Khosla Ventures, Lux Capital, Founders Fund, Caffeinated Capital, General Catalyst, and Also Capital.

Varda is headquartered in El Segundo, California, where we have offices and a production facility where our vehicles, equipment, and materials are built, integrated, and tested. Varda also has offices in Washington, DC and Huntsville, AL.

Join Varda, and work to create a bustling in-space ecosystem.

About This Role

The Senior Build Reliability Engineer partners closely with the design and manufacturing teams to right-size processes and controls to enable scaling the production of spacecraft hardware. Build Reliability Engineers ensure production processes yield verified, reliable hardware at rate. You will flex beyond Build Reliability to support Quality, Flight Reliability, and Mission Assurance. The ideal candidate is a responsible, collaborative, process-oriented engineer with hands‑on hardware design/test/manufacturing/troubleshooting experience.

Responsibilities

• Partner with design engineering and manufacturing teamsto create test, manufacturability, and inspection plansforall vehiclehardware.
• Contain suspect or known non-conforming product, providing guidance to quality inspectors, technicians, shop supervisors, and engineers.
• Lead failure investigations in production, test, and operation; identifying and mitigating immediate and underlying root causes to reduce risk and improve the reliability of designs and processes.
• Provide critical peer review of hardware during design reviews and acceptance and qualification test campaigns.
• Perform failure modes and effects analyses, build requirements compliance matrix tools, and ensure adequate test coverage, change management, and manufacturability of flight hardware.
• Own vehicle level deliverables for regulatory bodies including requirements compliance, functional or flight hazard analyses, and verification evidence.
• Support Mission Assurance's vehicle level risk management and identification/tracking/execution of mitigations.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in aerospace, computer science, electrical, manufacturing, mechanical, or material sciences engineering.
• 5+ years professional experience in aerospace, design, quality, or related engineering role.
• Hands‑on hardware test, qualification, troubleshooting, or failure analysis experience.
• Commitment to lean quality principles without compromising safety or reliability.
• Demonstrated application of process controls in high volume manufacturing, test, and quality environments.
• Experience generating, processing, and/or analyzing data for production insight.
• Strong