Senior Design Reliability Engineer
Impulse Space
Design
USD 140k-180k / year + Equity
Posted on May 30, 2026
As a Senior Design Reliability Engineer at Impulse, you will own the standardization and implementation of Impulse’s design process. You will lead cross-functional efforts on setting design standards, margining approach, configuration management, and templates.
- Department
- Propulsion
- Employment Type
- Full Time
- Location
- Redondo Beach
- Workplace type
- Onsite
- Compensation
- $140,000 - $180,000 / year
- Reporting To
- Kevin Miller, SVP of Engineering
Responsibilities
- Define and document design standards and best practices for structures, propulsion, avionics, composites, mechanisms, and more
- Define and document our margining approach
- Own the design release workflow processes, from CAD to PLM to MRP and ERP
- Define the design review process, templates, and milestones
- Create and manage tools to compile design-informing data and information, traceability of changes, and key decision points
- Provide design-for-reliability guidance during design reviews and build planning
- Develop and implement robust design configuration management processes
- Use build and flight data to influence requirements, assumptions, and decisions
- Act as a specification custodian for our design, margining, configuration, and release processe
- Ensure product integrity by holding the line on quality standards, extreme-owning design containments, and driving corrective actions to completion
- Liaise with build reliability, quality, and flight reliability to solve problems together
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or related field
- 5+ years of experience in hardware design and analysis for aerospace, automotive, or high-reliability systems
- Demonstrated experience supporting design-for-manufacturing of builds, integration, or test of primary structures and/or complex mechanical or electromechanical systems
- Strong problem-solving skills with demonstrated root cause analysis experience
- Strong theoretical and working knowledge of GD&T
Preferred Skills and Experience
- 8+ years of demonstrated design reliability experience with spacecraft, launch vehicles, aviation, robotics, or hardware
- Familiarity with AS9100, ISO 9001, or similar quality systems (practical application preferred over documentation focus)
- Demonstrated experience with reliability engineering concepts (FMEA, reliability growth, Weibull analysis)
- Demonstrated background working closely with cross-functional teams
- Demonstrated experience supporting rapid development or prototype-to-production transitions
Additional Requirements:
- Flexible schedule and willing to travel as needed
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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