Director, Payload Systems Integration & Test — Spaceflight

Varda Space; El Segundo (CA); On-site; USD 193,000 - 278,000; Full time

Job summary

Varda Space is seeking a Director of Payload Systems Integration & Test to lead a multidisciplinary team responsible for end-to-end mission success of diverse payloads. You will own interfaces, test campaigns, and customer delivery while ensuring safe recovery of data and hardware in orbit.

You will drive team hiring, scoping of new projects, and development of standard workflows. This role shapes the roadmap for hosted payloads and expands customer use cases for Varda’s platform.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of spacecraft or aerospace hardware experience spanning integration, test, and mission execution.
• Ability to turn poorly-defined technical problems into executable plans, interfaces, and requirements.
• Hands-on experience planning environmental qualification campaigns on flight hardware.
• Strong interface engineering background: ICDs, requirements flow-down, interface verification across organizational boundaries.
• Experience leading engineers, including hiring and developing early-career talent.
• Breadth across mechanical, thermal, fluidic, electrical, and software interfaces, with depth to be a credible technical backstop.
• Cleanroom operations and contamination control.
• Customer-facing experience: scoping work, managing execution schedules, and negotiating technical commitments.
• B.S. in a relevant engineering discipline.

Responsibilities

• Build and lead the Payload Systems Integration & Test team, hiring and developing engineers across a range of experience levels.
• Own integration and test for Varda's internal pharmaceutical processing payloads: test planning, functional and process verification, contamination control, and environmental qualification of fluidic and thermal flight hardware.
• Partner closely with Payload & Mechanisms development engineers on pharma payload designs, staying engaged early enough to shape testability and support fast iteration.
• Take ambiguous customer mission objectives and determine how to meet them with the existing platform, or scope the non-recurring engineering needed.
• Own payload interface definition and requirements: ICDs, interface verification, and the payload user guide documents.
• Plan and execute payload integration and test campaigns across both lines, including interface verification, functional testing, and environmental qualification.
• Work with the production crew building and integrating payload hardware, and establish cleanroom practices both lines depend on.
• Coordinate with Vehicle Integration & Test as a sister function, sharing practices where appropriate while maintaining distinct practices where needed.
• Work with Mission Management to hit contract milestones and serve as the technical face to customers through the mission lifecycle.
• Support payload operations through flight, reentry, and recovery.
• Establish and mature processes, documentation, and cleanroom practices to scale payload integration with cadence.

Skills

Integration & test

Interface engineering

Team leadership

Environmental qualification

Cleanroom operations

Customer-facing

Systems engineering breadth

Hands-on hardware

Education

B.S. in engineering

M.S. in aerospace / mechanical / chemical / systems engineering

Job description

Varda Space is seeking a Director of Payload Systems Integration & Test to lead a multidisciplinary team responsible for end-to-end mission success of diverse payloads. You will own interfaces, test campaigns, and customer delivery while ensuring safe recovery of data and hardware in orbit.

You will drive team hiring, scoping of new projects, and development of standard workflows. This role shapes the roadmap for hosted payloads and expands customer use cases for Varda’s platform.