Mechanical Engineer III - Payload

Firefly Aerospace, Inc.

Cedar Park (TX)

On-site

USD 110,000 - 160,000

Full time

9 hours ago

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Benefits offered by this job

Unlimited PTO for exempt employees

12 weeks paid maternity leave

4 weeks paid spouse leave

Stock bonuses

4% Safe Harbor 401(k) matching

Home purchase bonus

Dog friendly workplace

Job summary

Firefly Aerospace, Inc. in Texas is seeking a Payload Engineer III to design, analyze, develop, and qualify payload hardware and spacecraft interfaces for the Alpha Launch Vehicle.

You will own hardware definitions and lead the lifecycle from concept through flight readiness, collaborating with cross‑functional teams. The role requires 6+ years in aerospace hardware design, strong FEA/structural skills, and experience with qualification tests and interfacing with customers.

Qualifications

B.S. in Mechanical, Aerospace, or related field.
6+ years designing hardware for aerospace/high-reliability systems.
Experience with flight-critical structures or mechanisms.
Proficiency with FEA and hand calculations.

Responsibilities

Own payload segment hardware interfaces for customers to meet mission goals.
Create and manage hardware definition through CAD drawings.
Perform structural, thermal, and tolerance analyses.
Support build, integration, and acceptance activities to flight readiness.
Lead development, qualification, and test programs for payload hardware.
Mentor junior engineers and liaise with customers in meetings.

Skills

Flight hardware design

Structural analysis

CAD

FEA

Scripting for analysis

Education

B.S. in Mechanical, Aerospace, or related engineering field

M.S. or PhD in Mechanical, Aerospace, or related discipline

Tools

Ansys

Femap

CAD software

Job description

At Firefly, we’re focused on making space attainable for everyone – including you! Each team member’s passion, dedication, and innovative ideas have a direct impact on fueling our successful trajectory into space. And there’s no shortage of meaningful projects to work on at Firefly. With launch, lunar, and orbital vehicles, Firefly has a diverse line of business with opportunities to get hands‑on experience launching rockets, operating in space, and landing on the Moon.

What does SciTec bring to the Firefly family?
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The engine powering Alpha`s first stage is truly ...

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Our Values

Headquartered in the Lone Star State, Firefly’s hardworking team reflects Texas’ GO BIG culture in everything we do. We build big, achieve big, and dream big. We’re building launch vehicles and spacecraft to provide rapid, reliable space access. We’ve achieved some incredible wins, including the first successful commercial Moon landing. And we’re dreaming bigger than this planet with ambitions to Mars, Venus, and beyond. Our core values are what drive us along the way.

Passion

Fireflies believe in perseverance, responsiveness, and mentoring others with a focus on inspiring a better future.

Accountability

Fireflies act with integrity and take ownership of our actions, commitments, decisions, and outcomes.

Fireflies work in alignment across teams and communicate clearly with mutual respect for one another.

Fireflies deliver high-quality work through technical rigor and timely disciplined execution for our customers.

We take care of our Fireflies with some of the best benefits in the industry. Our mission to make space for everyone starts with our employees and allowing them to make space for their family, their career, and their future.

Space for You

Unlimited PTO for exempt employees
3-month sabbatical for every 5 years of service
Medical, dental, vision, life, and disability insurance
Mental health services
Paid military leave

Space for Your Family

12 weeks paid maternity leave
4 weeks paid spouse leave
$20k towards family planning: fertility, surrogacy, adoption
Dog friendly workplace

Space for Your Career

$10k/year towards trade school or college
Ongoing coaching to advance leadership skills
Employee-ownership with stock bonuses
4% Safe Harbor 401(k) matching
$10k bonus for home purchase in Cedar Park, Texas

Job Openings

From launch technicians to propulsion engineers, Firefly has open roles across the company. We’re looking for passionate, bright innovators to join our team and help make space an achievable dream for everyone.

Firefly Aerospace is a space and defense technology company that enables our world to launch, land, and operate in space – anywhere, anytime. As the partner of choice for critical space missions, Firefly is the only commercial company to launch a satellite to orbit with 24-hour notice and the only company to achieve a successful Moon landing. Our launch vehicles, lunar landers, and orbital vehicles provide government and commercial customers with full mission services from low Earth orbit to the Moon and beyond. Headquartered in north Austin, Texas, Firefly is looking for passionate, hardworking innovators to join our team and help fuel our successful trajectory into space.

ABOUT FIREFLY AEROSPACE

Firefly Aerospace is a space and defense technology company on a mission to reliably and repeatedly launch, land, and operate space systems from Earth to the Moon and beyond. As the partner of choice for critical space missions, Firefly is the first commercial company to launch a satellite to orbit with 24-hour notice and the first company to achieve a successful Moon landing. Headquartered in north Austin, Texas, Firefly is looking for passionate, hardworking innovators to join our team and help fuel our successful trajectory into space.

SUMMARY

The Payload Engineer III is responsible for the design, analysis, development, and qualification of the payload segment and mechanical interfaces to spacecraft for the Alpha Launch Vehicle. This role provides technical leadership across the full lifecycle of the payload segment hardware including fairings, attach fittings and adapters. This role offers a unique opportunity to get hands on with the unique spacecraft customers driving their mission requirements into functional hardware.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Individual contribution and teamwork as the technical owner to develop and produce both payload segment and spacecraft interfaces for individual customers to accomplish the goal of delivering launch vehicle customers to orbit.
Create and manage hardware definition through CAD, drawings and documentation.
Perform and/or guide detailed analysis including structural margins, thermal effects, and tolerance stack-ups.
Build confidence and reliability through rigorous documentation.
Collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams to ensure all hardware integrates seamlessly.
Partner with Manufacturing, Quality, and Supply Chain to ensure hardware is producible, inspectable, and flight-ready.
Support build, integration, and acceptance activities, resolving fit, function, and performance issues to ensure a successful product.
Lead development, qualification, and acceptance testing of payload hardware, including component-, subassembly-, and system-level tests to SMC-S016, AIAA S-114, GEVS and other industry standards.
Hold mechanical interface control definition for unique spacecraft through documentation.
Support customer fit check and integrations though segment encapsulation as the technical owner.
Provide technical mentorship to junior engineers, elevating overall design quality.
Act as a subject matter expert in interface meetings with customers and mission management
Up to 20% travel as needed.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required

B.S. in Mechanical, Aerospace, or related engineering field.
6+ years of experience designing, analyzing, and qualifying hardware for aerospace applications or high-reliability systems.
Demonstrated experience with flight-critical structures or mechanisms.
Experience designing and testing for extreme environments including vibration, shock, and vacuum conditions.
Demonstrated foundation of design with carbon fiber and metallic structures.
Proficiency with FEA and classical hand calculations methods to evaluate strength, stiffness, buckling, etc. (Ansys, Femap, etc.)
Solid understanding of loads & dynamics as they apply to primary structures.
Experience supporting production builds, resolving nonconformances, and improving producibility.
Experience defining qualification and acceptance test programs and interpreting test data.
Proven ability to make sound, defensible engineering decisions under schedule and program constraints.
M.S. or PhD in Mechanical, Aerospace, or related discipline or 8+ years of experience designing, analyzing, and qualifying mechanical mechanisms for aerospace or high-reliability systems.
Experience with launch vehicle or spacecraft programs from development through qualified flight.
Experience in customer facing technical roles.
Experience driving hardware through a failed test though successful product.
Familiarity with scripting or programming for analysis, automation, or data reduction.
Hands on experience working on final stage integration of spacecraft
Working knowledge of AIAA S-114, NASA 5017b, SMS-S016, NASA 5020, GEVS

Firefly offers outstanding benefits for our employees, including generous health, dental and vision plans with low plan deductibles, parental leave, educational reimbursement, short term disability, and flexible PTO options.

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Firefly Aerospace, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Firefly is governed based on merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

Primary Level Salary Range:

Firefly offers outstanding benefits for our employees, including generous health, dental and vision plans with low plan deductibles, parental leave, relocation benefits, educational reimbursement, short term disability, and flexible PTO options.

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including ITAR you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

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