Lead Spacecraft Engineering Manager

Muon Space; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 186,000 - 202,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity compensation

Health, dental, and vision insurance

Paid vacation and holidays

Job summary

Muon Space seeks an Engineering Manager to lead a team of mechanical engineers who tailor Muon's spacecraft platforms to specific missions. This hands-on role balances management with individual contributions, contributing designs and setting quality standards while leading design reviews.

The position is hybrid, requiring on-site work in San Jose, CA three days per week and collaboration with cross-functional teams across aerospace disciplines.

Qualifications

• 8+ years designing complex, integrated systems for harsh environments.
• 2+ years managing or technically leading engineering teams.
• Track record delivering hardware products to the field.
• Ability to move between hands-on engineering and team leadership in a fast-paced environment.
• Mastery of drawings, GD&T, BOMs, FAIs, tolerance budgets, and mass budgets; diligence with ECO/DCO processes.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of mechanical engineers customizing Muon's spacecraft platforms for specific missions; plan resourcing across concurrent missions and hire as the team scales.
• Invest in developing early-career engineers through coaching, design feedback, and growth planning.
• Own the mechanical deliverables for assigned missions—from requirements through design, build, integration, and environmental test; ensure on-time, high-reliability delivery.
• Stay hands-on: contribute designs, drawings, and analyses alongside the team, setting the standard you expect.
• Work with mission formulation and systems teams to translate customer needs into robust flight hardware, reusing common platform components where possible and developing new ones where needed.
• Set and uphold engineering standards for the team — factors of safety, make vs. buy, materials, PLM process, and documentation.
• Run design reviews and test readiness reviews; collaborate on test plans and own test campaigns outcomes.
• Partner with avionics, systems, thermal, structural, and production teams to optimize designs for performance, reliability, and manufacturability.

Skills

Team leadership

Mechanical design

Spacecraft systems

CAD (SolidWorks)

GD&T

Systems integration

Communication

Education

B.S. in Mechanical Engineering

Tools

SolidWorks

Job description

Muon Space seeks an Engineering Manager to lead a team of mechanical engineers who tailor Muon's spacecraft platforms to specific missions. This hands-on role balances management with individual contributions, contributing designs and setting quality standards while leading design reviews.

The position is hybrid, requiring on-site work in San Jose, CA three days per week and collaboration with cross-functional teams across aerospace disciplines.