Lead Reliability Engineer, Space Habitat Systems

Vast; Long Beach (CA); On-site; USD 137,000 - 195,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision coverage

Generous paid time off

401(k) retirement plan

ClassPass credits

Onsite meals and perks

Job summary

Vast in Long Beach is seeking a Design Reliability Engineer to lead design reviews and ensure reliability for artificial-gravity space habitats. The role reports to the Director of Design Reliability and requires overseeing qualification, test campaigns, and design standards across the station and vehicle architecture.

The ideal candidate has a mechanical/ aerospace/ systems background, 7+ years in reliability-focused engineering, and strong communication skills to influence across teams, while

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related field.
• 7+ years of experience in responsible engineering, design ownership, systems integration, test engineering, or reliability-focused development.
• Demonstrated experience conducting design reviews, qualification reviews, or major change assessments.
• Strong communicator and collaborative leader with high emotional intelligence, diplomacy, and the ability to influence at all levels.
• Resilient, curious, and committed to continuous learning in fast-paced or high-pressure environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead the technical reviews that shape the future of artificial-gravity space habitats—providing clear, decisive guidance during milestone design reviews and major risk gates.
• Oversee qualification and test completeness for flight systems, ensuring our test campaigns are robust, disciplined, and aligned with human-rated reliability.
• Bring deep engineering intuition to test campaigns, identifying risks early and helping teams converge on safe, resilient solutions.
• Evaluate complex design and operational changes, safeguarding technical integrity as the system evolves.
• Serve as the architect and guardian of Vast’s engineering standards, design guides, and review frameworks—tools that enable fast, confident decision-making across the company.
• Make engineering best practices accessible and actionable, especially for engineers moving rapidly under ambitious program timelines.
• Support and elevate engineering teams across the organization by bringing broad experience in design, build cycles, integration, and test.
• Turn organizational knowledge into lasting guidance by capturing lessons learned and strengthening future standards.
• Build and steward the processes that ensure engineering rigor at scale—ensuring designs meet standards, reviews are comprehensive, and changes are consistently implemented.
• Own and continuously refine design review templates, reliability checklists, and internal design guides.
• Track design maturity and compliance across the station and vehicle architecture, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.
• Build tools, frameworks, and automation that empower engineers to explore design trade-offs and risks with clarity and speed.
• Work across all facets of the engineering organization to improve reliability.
• Partner with configuration and change management so that every update to flight hardware is intentional, reviewed, and fully understood.
• Partner with the internal software team to ensure system data, configuration details, and design decisions are well organized and accessible.

Skills

Strong communicator

Collaborative leadership

Emotional intelligence

Ability to influence

Resilient and curious

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical/Aerospace/Systems Engineering

Tools

Python

MATLAB

Excel

Tableau

Job description

Vast in Long Beach is seeking a Design Reliability Engineer to lead design reviews and ensure reliability for artificial-gravity space habitats. The role reports to the Director of Design Reliability and requires overseeing qualification, test campaigns, and design standards across the station and vehicle architecture.

The ideal candidate has a mechanical/ aerospace/ systems background, 7+ years in reliability-focused engineering, and strong communication skills to influence across teams, while