Senior Avionics Mechanical Engineer
Impulse Space
USD 140k-170k / year + Equity
Posted on Aug 28, 2025
As a Senior Avionics Mechanical Engineer at Impulse for our Avionics Team, you are responsible for the design, build, test/analysis & integration of your hardware– working with cross-functional engineering teams to accomplish this. This means cradle-to-grave ownership of mechanical designs and systems in support of Impulse’s collection of next generation advanced propulsion space vehicles.
- Department
- Avionics
- Employment Type
- Full Time
- Location
- Redondo Beach
- Workplace type
- Onsite
- Compensation
- $140,000 - $170,000 / year
- Reporting To
- Viswa Rao, Lead Avionics Mechanical Engineer
Responsibilities
- Own all aspects of hardware development and execution, from concept through design, test, and launch
- Formulate the comprehensive cradle to grave Road Map for your hardware
- Navigate ambiguity to establish requirements that will ensure success at a system level
- Perform and document analysis with clear objectives to support design intent including hand calculations and FEA
- Incorporate manufacturing trades into conceptual design to explore different fabrication and assembly methods, with emphasis on DFM and DFA
- Proactively guide all aspects of your hardware’s maturity, project managing your hardware’s end users, stakeholders, and adjacent contributors to ensure all aspects of the system continue to mature together and that your assumptions are well understood outside yourself and remain valid
- Communicate effectively to ensure adjacent designs (such as vehicle, GNC, electrical, and software subsystems) are accounting for and supporting your hardware assumptions
- Conduct design reviews (CoDR, PDR, CDR) to cross-disciplinary teams to communicate the impacts of your design, and establish open risks and mitigations
- Analyze structural modes, thermal performance, and other critical aspects of avionics devices
- Produce engineering drawings with required specifications for manufacturing using GD&T
- Generate Test Plans and provide direct support to ensure successful execution of your hardware’s structural and thermal qualification and acceptance testing.
- Work with internal manufacturing team and external sources to procure materials, fabricate parts, and complete assemblies
- Update designs and documentation to support continuous improvement
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in engineering or related field
- 4+ years of demonstrated experience in mechanical design
- Demonstrated proficiency in CAD software with ability to learn new tools
- Demonstrated ability in conceptual design, fabrication and testing of hardware
- Demonstrated experience working collaboratively across different teams
- Ability to communicate technical challenges, explain rationale and/or resolve concerns
Preferred Skills and Experience
- Masters' degree in mechanical or aerospace engineering
- 7+ years' of demonstrated mechanical design & analysis with space-flown hardware
- 4+ years' of demonstrated understanding of geometric dimensioning & tolerancing (GD&T)
- 4+ years' of demonstrated experience with Finite Element Analysis (FEA)
- Experience with mechanical design in challenging vibration/thermal environments
- In order to be successful in this role, you should be someone who is uniquely creative, self-driven, and is able to lead his or her own projects to completion
- Experience at a startup or agile development environment
- Experience with NX and Teamcenter
Additional Information:
Compensation bands are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual level and base pay is determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on job-related skills, education, experience, technical capabilities and internal equity. In addition to base salary, for full-time hires, you may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of stock options, and access to medical, vision & dental coverage as well as access to a 401(k) retirement plan.
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. Learn more about the ITAR here.
Impulse Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Impulse Space is governed on the basis of 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.
About Impulse Space
Impulse Space, the in-space transportation company founded by Tom Mueller, is opening access beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) with its fleet of in-space transportation vehicles. The high-energy Helios vehicle unlocks orbits beyond LEO with its powerful Deneb engine, dropping off payloads in MEO, GEO, heliocentric, lunar, and other planetary orbits. The flight-proven Mira vehicle uses a nontoxic, high-impulse chemical propulsion system to offer orbital transport, constellation deployment, and precision reentry services to customers throughout LEO. Led by a team that delivered the most reliable rockets in history, Impulse provides economical and efficient in-space transportation by reliably and rapidly getting customers where they want to go.
Our Hiring Process
Stage 1:
Application Received
Stage 2:
Resume Review
Stage 3:
Intro Phone Interview
Stage 4:
Technical Phone Interview(s)
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