Lead Vehicle Systems Engineer

EVONA; El Segundo (CA); On-site; USD 210,000 - 350,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Significant equity participation

Direct influence on company strategy

Early employee equity

Job summary

EVONA, a seed-stage space startup, is seeking a Senior/Lead engineer to own spacecraft engineering and guide a growing technical team. You’ll deliver real hardware, drive critical decisions, and operate at the intersection of hands-on engineering and strategic leadership in a fast-moving startup environment.

You may come from notable New Space backgrounds and have led products from concept through launch. Significant equity and a pivotal company-building role await.

Qualifications

• Led development of flight hardware or mission-critical systems.
• Taken products from concept through launch, deployment or operation.
• Built credibility across multiple engineering disciplines.
• Influenced technical direction beyond your immediate team.
• Balanced engineering rigor with execution speed.

Responsibilities

• Own technical strategy and system architecture for spacecraft/vehicle engineering.
• Drive major engineering decisions across the company.
• Remain hands-on while building and scaling the engineering organization.
• Work directly with the founder and leadership to shape product development and timelines.
• Help shape future fundraising and growth plans.

Skills

Flight hardware

System architecture

Technical leadership

Cross-disciplinary credibility

Job description

Build the Future of In-Space Manufacturing

Austin, TX | Seed Stage Space Startup | Significant Equity

This role is officially titled CTO but will start of as more of a Lead Systems Engineer.

The business is currently around 10 people but well backed financially, has already build and launched hardware and has paying customers!

We don't need a Senior manager who's not build hardware.

We don't need someone who's only ever worked in big organisations.

We need a strong Senior/Lead engineer who owns spacecraft/vehicle engineering and maybe runs a small team

Some who's a do-er, still hands on but confident enough to lead and from a start-up/NewSpace background

You may currently be a:

• Deputy Chief Engineer
• Principal Engineer
• Vehicle Engineering Lead
• Engineering Manager leading a highly technical team

What matters most is that you've delivered real hardware, led critical technical decisions and understand what it takes to build systems that operate in space.

The Company

Our client is a venture-backed space startup building the infrastructure required to make commercial manufacturing in orbit scalable.

The company is developing autonomous orbital manufacturing platforms, robotics systems and space logistics capabilities designed to unlock entirely new industrial applications in microgravity.

They have already secured customers, demonstrated technology, won NASA recognition and are preparing for significant growth.

This is a rare opportunity to combine technical leadership, company building and hands-on engineering.

You will:

• Be from a New Space company background
• Own technical strategy and system architecture
• Drive major engineering decisions across the company
• Work directly with the founder and leadership team
• Build and scale the engineering organisation
• Help shape future fundraising and growth plans
• Remain deeply involved in engineering execution and product development

This is not a role for someone looking to step away from engineering.

We are looking for a builder.

Ideal Background

We are particularly interested in candidates from companies such as:

SpaceX, Anduril, Firefly Aerospace, Vast, Rocket Lab, Millennium Space Systems, True Anomaly, Astranis, Apex, Impulse Space, Redwire, Axiom Space, Loft Orbital, Castelion, York Space or similar high-performance aerospace environments.

You have:

• Led development of flight hardware or mission-critical systems
• Taken products from concept through launch, deployment or operation
• Built credibility across multiple engineering disciplines
• Influenced technical direction beyond your immediate team
• Balanced engineering rigor with execution speed

Why Join?

• Employee #10
• Significant equity participation
• Direct influence on company strategy
• Opportunity to build a category-defining space business
• Work alongside experienced founders, investors and customers
• Help define the future of industrial activity in space

Compensation: Up to $350,000 base salary plus significant equity participation.

Requirements: U.S. Person status required due to export control regulations.