Staff Mechanical Engineer (Spacecraft Components)

• Muon seeks a Staff Mechanical Engineer to be a technical owner for spacecraft mechanisms and components design; own single-point-failure management (margin, redundancy, test coverage); own component qualification (deployment, life, and environmental testing)
• You’ll start from Muon’s platform building blocks, tailor and design hardware to meet mission needs, and pull in the right stakeholders (structural, thermal, electrical, systems) at the right times to deliver on time
• Being an early-stage company with small teams, breadth is essential: you’ll have touch points across engineering, production, and program management
• As a staff engineer you’ll own strategy spanning multiple subsystems
• You’ll set platform-level mechanical architecture, define complex complex test campaigns, and own designs across multiple concurrent missions on a six-month-to-year-plus horizon
• You’ll be the go-to escalation point for the non-routine problems that stump the team
• Own the mechanical direction of your spacecraft component or mechanisms; from requirements definition through design, build, test, and launch-vehicle integration
• Create, analyze, and refine mechanical designs in SolidWorks; tailor Muon’s platform components and design new components where required
• Perform first-order structural, dynamic, and thermal sizing to guide designs; partner with Muon’s dedicated structural and thermal analysis groups on detailed analysis and correlation
• Make economically sound make-vs-buy decisions, balancing rapid capability demonstration with the path to constellation-scale production
• Lead the mechanical portion of internal and external design reviews (PDR, CDR, MRR)
• Lead component/subsystem environmental test campaigns (vibration, TVAC, shock) and disposition results
• Produce and release engineering documentation: drawings, GD&T, BOMs, tolerance/mass budgets, and build procedures under configuration control (ECO/DCO, PLM)
• Contribute to maturing Muon’s mechanical engineering standards, tools, and culture
• Own the mechanical architecture and design direction of components for usage across platform/satellite class, balancing multiple concurrent and future missions
• Engage directly with stakeholders and launch providers on interfaces, environments, margins, and acceptance criteria; contribute mechanical content to proposals
• Define, document, and champion mechanical design standards, review processes, and best practices that scale across the organization
• Act as a force multiplier — mentor engineers at all levels, chair design reviews

Benefits

• 100% health, dental, and vision coverage for employees; 50% coverage for dependents (Concierge Medical offered through One Medical where available)
• Parental leave for primary and secondary caregivers
• Generous time off policy
• 401(k) plan through Betterment and equity management through Carta
• Fully stocked kitchen at our HQ and we cater lunch 3 days per week
• Dog-friendly office- The ideal candidate can go deep on design while carrying a “systems mindset” — a force multiplier who collaborates across disciplines to arrive at an elegant, well-balanced design
• Excellent communication, presentation, and cross-functional coordination skills
• Customer-facing experience: technical interchanges, requirements discussions, or proposal contributions
• Demonstrated experience creating technical documents (ESOW, Technical Specification, DFMEA, Test Verification Plan)
• Proficiency in CAD (SolidWorks preferred) for medium-to-large assembly design and management
• Demonstrated proficiency leading mechanical design for complex electromechanical systems
• B.S. or higher in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field
• Experience owning a components used across platform, product line, or major subsystems
• 10+ years of experience designing, building, and testing high-reliability hardware
• Mastery of drawings, GD&T, BOMs, FAIs, tolerance budgets, and mass budgets
• Strong mentorship skills
• Recognized depth in a specialty (e.g., Mechanisms, Composites, or Dynamics) with industry references
• Experience with ECO/DCO processes and PLM systems
• Experience managing external vendors for part prototyping and development
• Extensive documentation capabilities: build procedures, test plans, design trades, DOEs
• We encourage you to apply, even if you don’t check all the boxes, and we look forward to reviewing your application!
• Software skills in Python, MATLAB, or similar
• Experience running structural analyses (FEMAP, ANSYS, NASTRAN) and environmental testing
• Familiarity with satellite payloads and mission-level mechanical integration
• Experience optimizing and maturing existing designs (not only clean-sheet development)
• Large-assembly management in SolidWorks PDM; PLM systems (Duro or similar)
• Flight heritage on the following components: Gimbaled Devices, Separation/Launch Interface, Electrical Modules, Battery Packs, Reaction Wheel, CMG, Magnetorquer, Star Trackers, Propulsion, Radiators, Instrument Packaging, Instrument Scan Mechanisms
• Qualifying mechanisms to NASA-STD-5017, ECSS, or equivalent
• Experience with thermal management systems for spacecraft