Director, Payload Systems Integration & Test

Varda Space Industries; United States; On-site; USD 186,000 - 251,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Relocation assistance

Stock options

401(k) with 6% match

Wellness reimbursement

Parental leave

Meals provided

Job summary

Varda Space Industries seeks a Director of Payload Systems Integration and Test to lead a multidisciplinary team delivering flight-ready payloads for in-space missions. You will own end-to-end integration, design interfaces, and manage test campaigns across pharma and other payloads, ensuring reliability from assembly to recovery.

You will supervise day-to-day execution, hiring, scoping new projects, and maturing standard workflows and the hosted payload guide, expanding customers and use cases

Qualifications

• 10+ years of spacecraft or aerospace hardware experience spanning integration, test, and mission execution.
• Translate poorly-defined problems into executable plans, interfaces, and requirements.
• Hands-on experience planning and running environmental qualification campaigns on flight hardware.
• Strong interface engineering background: ICDs, requirements flow-down, and verification.
• Experience leading engineers, including hiring and mentoring early-career talent.
• Broad experience across mechanical, thermal, fluidic, electrical, and software interfaces.
• Cleanroom operations and contamination control.
• Customer-facing experience: scoping work, managing schedules, and setting expectations.
• B.S. in a relevant engineering discipline.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead the Payload Systems Integration & Test team and develop engineers across experience levels.
• Own integration and test for pharma payloads: test planning, verification, contamination control, and environmental qualification.
• Collaborate with Payload & Mechanisms engineers to shape testability early in design cycles.
• Translate ambiguous customer objectives into feasible platform solutions and scope NRE work.
• Own payload interfaces: ICDs, interface verification, and the payload user guide documentation.
• Plan and run payload integration campaigns across lines, including verification and environmental testing.
• Work with production to establish cleanroom practices essential to both lines.
• Coordinate with Vehicle Integration & Test to share best practices while maintaining distinct processes.
• Interface with Mission Management to meet milestones and act as technical face to customers.
• Support payload operations through flight, reentry, and recovery.
• Develop and mature processes and cleanroom practices to scale with mission cadence.

Skills

Systems integration

Leadership

Interface engineering

Environmental testing

Mission execution

Multidisciplinary engineering

Cleanroom operations

Customer-facing

People management

Education

B.S. in engineering

Job description

Varda Space Industries seeks a Director of Payload Systems Integration and Test to lead a multidisciplinary team delivering flight-ready payloads for in-space missions. You will own end-to-end integration, design interfaces, and manage test campaigns across pharma and other payloads, ensuring reliability from assembly to recovery.

You will supervise day-to-day execution, hiring, scoping new projects, and maturing standard workflows and the hosted payload guide, expanding customers and use cases