Flight Mechanisms Engineer I — Space Hardware

Doist; San Carlos, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 74,000 - 114,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Medical insurance

401(k) plan

Paid time off

Holidays

Parental leave

Relocation assistance

Office lunch

Job summary

Cowboy Space Corp. in San Carlos, CA, seeks a Mechanisms Engineer to own a vehicle mechanism subsystem from concept through flight, collaborating with propulsion, structures, avionics, and launch ops to design, build, and validate hardware for ascent, entry, landing, and reuse.

The role emphasizes hands-on hardware, rapid iteration on the factory floor, and documentation from drawings to release packages. A bachelor’s in Mechanical/Aerospace engineering and 1+ years’ flight hardware experience

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering or Aerospace Engineering.
• 1+ years of experience designing mechanisms or mechanical systems for flight vehicles or high-performance hardware.
• Solid fundamentals in structural mechanics, kinematics, materials, and manufacturing processes.

Responsibilities

• Own your mechanism subsystem from concept through design, analysis, test, and flight.
• Drive structural and kinematic design for minimum mass while meeting strength, stiffness, fatigue, and operational-life requirements across ascent, entry, landing, and reuse environments.
• Balance performance, manufacturability, cost, and schedule in every design decision.
• Perform analysis — hand calculations, FEA, tolerance stack-ups — and validate predictions with test and flight data.
• Define and execute qualification and acceptance test campaigns; author procedures, acceptance criteria, and anomaly dispositions.
• Develop and maintain engineering drawings, models, and release documentation.
• Work directly on the factory floor with manufacturing to iterate quickly and resolve build issues in real time.
• Troubleshoot hardware anomalies, perform root cause analysis, and implement design improvements.
• Support launch operations, post-flight inspection, and refurbishment planning.

Job description

Cowboy Space Corp. in San Carlos, CA, seeks a Mechanisms Engineer to own a vehicle mechanism subsystem from concept through flight, collaborating with propulsion, structures, avionics, and launch ops to design, build, and validate hardware for ascent, entry, landing, and reuse.

The role emphasizes hands-on hardware, rapid iteration on the factory floor, and documentation from drawings to release packages. A bachelor’s in Mechanical/Aerospace engineering and 1+ years’ flight hardware experience