Director of Mechanical Engineering

Job Description

Job Description

Director, Structures

Austin, Texas – Relocation Assistance Provided

 

The Company

Our client's mission is an end-to-end responsive space company on a mission to make space accessible—launching, landing, and operating anywhere, anytime. With small- to medium-lift launch vehicles, lunar landers, and orbital vehicles, they support the full lifecycle of government and commercial missions from low Earth orbit to the Moon and beyond. By leveraging advanced carbon composite structures, proprietary propulsion technologies, and shared components across our fleet, they accelerate innovation, enhance reliability, and deliver payloads more affordably.

The Job

The Director, Structures owns delivery of qualified, reliable, flight-ready structures across launch vehicles and spacecraft. You will provide leadership and technical authority for all aspects of structural design, analysis, and architecture, with ultimate responsibility for performance, reliability, and scalability. This is a hands-on leadership position that spans the full hardware lifecycle—from early concept and design, through manufacturing, integration, test, and flight.

You will build and lead a high-performing structures team, mentoring and developing engineers while driving execution discipline across design, analysis, build, test, and fleet reliability. Success in this role means ensuring structural solutions are technically sound, manufacturable, and delivered on schedule—through close collaboration with Propulsion, Avionics/Software, Manufacturing/Test, Quality/Reliability, Supply Chain, and Programs.

Functions

• Provide vision and leadership for the design, development, manufacturing, and integration of all structural aspects of vehicles
• Lead, mentor, and manage a multi-discipline team of engineers and technicians, including Responsible Engineers (REs), ensuring professional development and performance accountability
• Serve as chief architect of integrated airframe and tank structures, driving major design trades, reviews, and decisions
• Establish and maintain department standards, processes, and documentation, ensuring compliance with industry regulations and internal best practices
• Define and manage budget, headcount, schedules, and deliverables for the Structures Engineering department
• Oversee hardware development, qualification test definitions, and acceptance criteria
• Coordinate and align closely with program leadership to ensure structural milestones support program priorities and company objectives
• Build and maintain supplier and subcontractor relationships to ensure quality and timely delivery of structural components
• Support cross-functional collaboration with Mechanical, Propulsion, Avionics, and Production teams to optimize workflow and resolve conflicts
• Address high-level design issues, solve complex problems, and ensure designs are technically feasible and manufacturable
• Drive continuous improvement initiatives to enhance engineering quality, reliability, cost efficiency, and lead-time reduction

Qualifications

• 10+ years in aerospace structures (launch vehicles or spacecraft) with 5+ years leading teams that delivered flight hardware
• B.S. in Aerospace, Mechanical, or related field
• Demonstrated ownership of structural design/analysis and qualification test through flight
• Proficiency in FEM and hand analysis; materials/allowables ; fracture/mechanisms fundamentals; test planning and data reduction
• Track record as a player-coach: hands-on design/analysis/test involvement while leading teams to delivery
• Experience running change control, nonconformance, and configuration management at speed

Preferred Skills

• 15+ years of professional experience in structures or mechanical engineering
• Leadership of multi-program or multi-site structures organizations
• Hands-on composites manufacturing and testing oversight experience
• Experience designing structures for cryogenic environments
• Experience with high-rate production, reusability, and post-flight teardown/failure analysis
• Experience with aerospace standard structural analysis methods (Bruhn, Niu, Roark, Shigley's, etc.)
• Familiarity with AS9100, NASA/DoD standards, and human-rating or CLPS-class rigor

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

The company is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with the company is governed based on 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