Lead Design Engineer - Spacecraft

If you've helped design flight hardware and are ready to move beyond owning a subsystem to shaping an entire spacecraft, this is an opportunity to take a leading role in the development of next‑generation space vehicles. You'll join a well‑funded aerospace start‑up that has already launched multiple spacecraft and is now scaling to a new class of orbital platforms. Working within a highly experienced team drawn from leading space organisations, you'll take ownership of vehicle architecture, mechanical design, integration, and packaging decisions that directly influence upcoming flight missions. This role offers the chance to work on real hardware with near‑term launch timelines, while helping define the engineering standards, design philosophy, and technical direction of a rapidly growing company. You’ll Get to Expand Your Experience In Owning the mechanical architecture of an entire flight vehicle rather than a single subsystem Designing spacecraft structures, mechanisms, interfaces, and packaging layouts from concept through flight Defining mass budgets, structural trade studies, and vehicle‑level design decisions Collaborating closely with systems, GNC, avionics, and mission engineering teams to translate requirements into flight‑ready hardware Supporting hardware build, integration, testing, and launch activities within a fast‑moving development environment Influencing engineering processes, design standards, and product strategy as an early member of a growing team What They’re Looking For 2–5 years of experience designing aerospace flight hardware Experience owning mechanical design work on a spacecraft, launch vehicle, re‑entry vehicle, hypersonics program, or similar flight system Strong CAD skills for vehicle layout, packaging, structures, and interface definition Experience performing structural sizing, load analysis, and mass budgeting Familiarity with FEA and structural analysis tools Comfortable working across structures, mechanisms, integration, and vehicle‑level design challenges Able to clearly articulate personal technical ownership and engineering decisions Why This Opportunity Stands Out Join a company with multiple successful missions already completed and a packed launch manifest ahead Help design the next generation of spacecraft rather than maintaining existing platforms Work alongside an experienced team with backgrounds spanning commercial spaceflight, government programs, advanced research, and orbital operations Gain broad vehicle‑level ownership rarely available at this stage of a career Competitive salary, meaningful equity, and the opportunity to influence both product and company direction as the organisation scales Eligibility: Must be eligible to work on export‑controlled aerospace programs in the United States #J-18808-Ljbffr Hatched Recruitment Group