Senior Mechanical Engineer - Spacecraft Mission Mechanical Lead
Location: San Jose, CA
Department: Engineering - Hardware
About the role
Muon seeks a Senior Mechanical Engineer to serve as a Mission Mechanical Lead on upcoming missions. In this role, you’ll be working with our customers and system engineers to design a solution that meets mission requirements by re-using existing platform components & designing new components that are unique to the mission.
You’ll own the mechanical direction of the mission from requirements definition to installation on the launch vehicle. This will include direct collaboration with the customer, as well as Muon’s systems engineering team to understand requirements, then an execution focus internally, pulling in relevant stakeholders (such as structural, thermal, electrical, etc) at the appropriate times to deliver a robust satellite on-time.
This role requires onsite work at our Mountain View and San Jose locations.
Responsibilities
- Have a deep understanding of Muon’s spacecraft platforms & capabilities, and tailor these platforms to meet mission needs.
- Design, build, and test mission specific components and payloads.
- Create, analyze, and refine the full spacecraft mechanical designs in SolidWorks.
- Design & document new, reusable components to be included in Muon’s common platform.
- Lead mechanical portion of both internal and external design reviews.
- Interface with structural and thermal engineers to define and run analysis.
- Lead environmental testing campaigns (vibration, TVAC, etc)
- Write new documentation and build procedures unique to the mission.
Required Qualifications
- 8+ years of experience designing, building, and testing high reliability hardware
- Demonstrated proficiency leading mechanical design for spacecraft or complex electromechanical systems
- Experience technically leading or managing a small team of engineers and/or technicians
- Proficiency in CAD (SolidWorks preferred) for medium-to-large assembly design and management
- Mastery of drawings, GD&T, BOMs, FAIs, tolerance budgets, and mass budgets
- Experience with ECO/DCO processes and PLM systems
- Extensive documentation capabilities: build procedures, test plans, design trades, DOEs
- Experience managing external vendors for part prototyping and development
- Excellent communication, presentation, and cross-functional coordination skills
- B.S. or higher in Mechanical Engineering or related field
Nice-to-have Skills
- Flight heritage—hardware you designed that has successfully operated in space
- Experience optimizing and maturing existing designs (not only clean-sheet development)
- Familiarity with satellite payloads and mission-level mechanical integration
- Experience with deployable hardware (solar arrays, antennas, mechanisms)
- Experience with ADCS components: reaction wheels, torque rods, star trackers
- Experience running structural analyses (FEMAP, ANSYS) & environmental testing
- Experience with thermal management systems for spacecraft
- Software skills in Python, MATLAB, or similar
- Project management experience: customer reviews, Gantt charts, risk tracking
- Experience qualifying external vendors and contract manufacturers
Salary
The salary range for this role is $183,000 - $198,000 plus a competitive equity grant and comprehensive benefits package. Final compensation will be based on skills, qualifications, experience, and geographic location as assessed during the interview process.
About Muon Space
Founded in 2021, Muon Space is an end-to-end Space Systems Provider that designs, builds, and operates LEO satellite constellations delivering mission-critical data. Our revolutionary, integrated technology stack enables customers to optimize every dimension of their missions for faster time-to-orbit and superior constellation remote sensing performance. Our state-of-the-art facility in the heart of Silicon Valley is optimized for manufacturing spacecraft and rapid, flexible payload integration at scale. From climate monitoring to national security, Muon Space is dedicated to delivering Earth Intelligence for a safer and more resilient world.
Taking Care of Our Team
At Muon salary is only part of our total compensation package. In addition to salary, full-time employees receive equity compensation as well as benefits including medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401k retirement plan, short & long term disability and life insurance. We also offer three weeks paid vacation for new employees, along with 12 paid holidays, unlimited sick time and paid parental leave.
Our mission embraces the entire planet and we believe our team should too. Muon is dedicated to creating a diverse and dynamic company and workforce. We believe in equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, age, national origin, citizenship, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, or gender identity. We value diversity in the workplace, and that starts with our applicants. We encourage you to apply, even if you don't check all the boxes, and we look forward to reviewing your application! In addition, if you need a reasonable accommodation as part of your application for employment or interviews with us, please let us know.
ITAR/EAR Requirements
This position requires access to export controlled information. To conform to U.S. Government export regulations applicable to that information, applicant must either be (A) a U.S. person, defined as a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (green card holder), (iii) refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, (B) eligible to access the export controlled information without a required export authorization, or (C) eligible and reasonably likely to obtain the required export authorization from the applicable U.S. government agency. The Company may, for legitimate business reasons, decline to pursue any export licensing process.
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