Mechanical & Structural Engineering (T

Team: Hardware / Structures
Location: Los Angeles, CA (on-site)
Type: Full-time
Compensation: $120,000 to $180,000 base + meaningful early-stage equity

Orbital is building data centers in space. AI inference demand is effectively unlimited, and terrestrial data centers are running into hard limits on power, land, and permitting. In orbit, the physics flips in our favor: abundant, uninterrupted solar power and "free" heat rejection into vacuum.

We're designing and manufacturing high-power compute satellites — on the order of 100 kW each — to put GPU compute where the energy and capacity are.

You'll own the physical satellite — the primary structure, the deployable mechanisms, and the launch-to-orbit transformation that makes orbital compute possible.

Our production satellite is essentially a small power plant housing GPUs. The main structures are solar arrays and a deployable radiator panel that must fold into a launch fairing, survive launch, and unfold reliably in orbit. Designing these structures — and the mechanisms that deploy them — is one of our key engineering problems.

You'll work shoulder-to-shoulder with our other founding engineering team members to take our first satellites from concept through design, integration, test, and flight.

Own the satellite's primary structure and structural architecture across our mission roadmap (Pathfinder → Orbital-1).

Design the deployable solar array and radiator mechanisms — stowage, deployment, latching, and on-orbit reliability.
Define the mechanical integration of the GPU compute payload and its interface to the bus.
Own mass properties, CG, and SWaP budgets across the spacecraft.

Interface with partners and select component vendors, test labs, and fabrication shops.
Take hardware through environmental test campaigns (vibration, TVAC support, deployment testing).
Establish mechanical engineering practices, tooling, and processes as we stand up in-house manufacturing.

5+ years of spacecraft mechanical and/or structural engineering experience.

Hands-on experience with deployable structures — solar arrays, antennas, radiators, booms, or similar mechanisms.

Strong fundamentals in structural FEA, launch and vibration loads, and materials (CFRP, aluminum, titanium).

Bonus Points
Experience with roll-out or composite-substrate solar arrays (ROSA-class or similar).

Experience with high-power-density spacecraft or large deployable structures.

Challenging mechanical engineering problems. Folding a power-plant-scale structure into a fairing and unfolding it reliably in orbit, around a 100 kW thermal payload, is a meaningful challenge.

Equity: Meaningful founding equity.
Benefits: Medical, dental, and vision — 100% covered for employee.
Location: Los Angeles — Arts District office, with South Bay manufacturing as we scale.