Senior Spacecraft Build Reliability Engineer Verified today

About Varda

Varda is accelerating commercial space infrastructure. The W-Series vehicles are built, designed, and operated in-house, including pharmaceutical processing payloads, reentry capsules, C-PICA heat shields, and satellite buses. Our mission is to expand the economic bounds of humankind by manufacturing space-only products that benefit life on Earth.

Varda is headquartered in El Segundo, California, with offices in Washington, DC and Huntsville, AL.

About This Role

The Senior Spacecraft Build Reliability Engineer partners with design and manufacturing teams to scale production of spacecraft hardware. You ensure production processes yield verified, reliable hardware at rate, flexing to support Quality, Flight Reliability, and Mission Assurance. You are responsible, collaborative, and process-oriented with hands-on hardware design, test, manufacturing, and troubleshooting experience.

Responsibilities

• Partner with design engineering and manufacturing teams to create test, manufacturability, and inspection plans for all vehicle hardware.
• Contain suspect or known non-conforming product, providing guidance to quality inspectors, technicians, shop supervisors, and engineers.
• Lead failure investigations in production, test, and operation; identify and mitigate immediate and underlying root causes to reduce risk and improve reliability of designs and processes.
• Provide critical peer review of hardware during design reviews and acceptance and qualification test campaigns.
• Perform failure modes and effects analyses, build requirements compliance matrix tools, and ensure adequate test coverage, change management, and manufacturability of flight hardware.
• Own vehicle level deliverables for regulatory bodies including requirements compliance, functional or flight hazard analyses, and verification evidence.
• Support Mission Assurance's vehicle level risk management and identification, tracking, and execution of mitigations.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in aerospace, computer science, electrical, manufacturing, mechanical, or material sciences engineering.
• 5+ years professional experience in aerospace, design, quality, or related engineering role.
• Hands-on hardware test, qualification, troubleshooting, or failure analysis experience.
• Commitment to lean quality principles without compromising safety or reliability.
• Demonstrated application of process controls in high volume manufacturing, test, and quality environments.
• Experience generating, processing, and/or analyzing data for production insight.
• Strong interpersonal and collaborative skills, with a drive to innovate and improve reliability in cutting-edge technology.

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Full project lifecycle ownership experience (cradle-to-grave).
• Proficiency with quality tools such as measurement systems analysis, design of experiments, statistical process control, root cause analysis and corrective action, advanced product quality planning (APQP), metrology, process failure mode and effects analysis (PFMEA), control plans, and various problem-solving approaches.
• Hands-on knowledge of CNC machining, additive manufacturing, casting, welding, fastening, or other special manufacturing processes.

Compensation and Location

Salary range: $140,333 to $179,314 per year. This role is onsite in El Segundo, CA. Leveling and base salary is determined by job-related skills, education level, experience level, and job performance. You will be eligible for incentives in the form of stock options and/or long-term cash awards.