Mechanical & Structural Engineer — Space

Orbital - Space Data Centers; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity in founding team

Medical, dental, and vision - 100% for

PTO: Unlimited; no set hours

Location: Los Angeles - Arts District

Job summary

Orbital is building AI data centers in space and seeks an experienced spacecraft mechanical/structural engineer to join the founding team in Los Angeles. You’ll own the satellite’s primary structure and deployable mechanisms, guiding them from concept through design, integration, test, and flight.

You’ll work closely with the founding engineers to deliver a production satellite that houses GPU compute, manage mass, stiffness, and interfaces to the bus, and drive in-house manufacturing practices

Qualifications

• 5+ years in spacecraft mechanical/structural engineering.
• Hands-on deployable structures experience (solar arrays, radiators, booms).
• Experience with ABAQUS, ANSYS or NASTRAN.
• Strong FEA, launch and vibration loads, and materials (CFRP, aluminum, titanium).
• Proven ability to take design from concept to fabrication, integration and test.
• Comfort in an early-stage environment with rapid iteration and imperfect information.
• Hands-on builder who wants to own the whole problem.

Responsibilities

• Own the satellite’s primary structure and structural architecture across the mission roadmap.
• Design deployable solar array and radiator mechanisms: stowage, deployment, latching, on-orbit reliability.
• Run structural analysis including FEA, modal analysis, launch loads, vibration, and configurations.
• Define mechanical integration of the GPU payload and its interface to the bus.
• Own mass properties, CG, and SWaP budgets for the spacecraft.
• Interface with partners, vendors, test labs, and fabrication shops.
• Lead environmental test campaigns (vibration, TVAC, deployment testing).
• Establish mechanical engineering practices and in-house manufacturing processes.

Skills

Spacecraft structural engineering

Deployable structures

FEA

ABAQUS

ANSYS

NASTRAN

Launch loads

Build-to-flight

Tools

ABAQUS

ANSYS

NASTRAN

Job description

Orbital is building AI data centers in space. AI compute demand is outgrowing Earth's power grid. Data center builds face 5-12 year grid interconnection queues, water constraints, and mounting community opposition. The physics of space solves this: in orbit, solar power is continuous and ~5x more effective than on Earth, and cooling is free - heat radiates directly into the vacuum. NVIDIA makes the chip. SpaceX provides the launch. The missing piece is a satellite bus designed from the ground up for GPU compute - and that's what we build.

We design and manufacture compute-native satellites, launch them aboard Starship, and operate them in orbit to deliver inference at scale. We're backed by a group of prominent investors including a16z speedrun and founded by Euwyn Poon (previously founded Spin, acquired by Ford - $100M+ revenue, 250,000 vehicles, 1,800 employees).

Our first mission, Pathfinder, launches in 2027. This is a role on the founding engineering team. You'll be one of our first engineers, owning an entire discipline of the spacecraft, reporting directly to the founder.

About the Role

You’ll own the physical satellite - the primary structure, the deployable mechanisms, and the launch-to-orbit transformation that makes orbital compute possible. Our production satellite is essentially a small power plant housing GPUs. The main structures are solar arrays and a deployable radiator panel that must fold into a launch fairing, survive launch, and unfold reliably in orbit. Designing these structures - and the mechanisms that deploy them - is one of our key engineering problems. You’ll work shoulder-to-shoulder with our other founding engineering team members to take our first satellites from concept through design, integration, test, and flight.

Responsibilities

• Own the satellite’s primary structure and structural architecture across our mission roadmap (Pathfinder -> Orbital-1)
• Design the deployable solar array and radiator mechanisms - stowage, deployment, latching, and on-orbit reliability
• Run structural analysis: FEA, modal analysis, launch loads, random vibration, shock, and stowed/deployed configurations
• Define the mechanical integration of the GPU compute payload and its interface to the bus
• Own mass properties, CG, and SWaP budgets across the spacecraft
• Interface with partners and select component vendors, test labs, and fabrication shops
• Take hardware through environmental test campaigns (vibration, TVAC support, deployment testing)
• Establish mechanical engineering practices, tooling, and processes as we stand up in-house manufacturing

Qualifications

• 5+ years of spacecraft mechanical and/or structural engineering experience
• Hands‑on experience with deployable structures - solar arrays, antennas, radiators, booms, or similar mechanisms
• Experience with ABAQUS, ANSYS, or NASTRAN
• Strong fundamentals in structural FEA, launch and vibration loads, and materials (CFRP, aluminum, titanium)
• Demonstrated ability to take a design from concept through fabrication, integration, and test
• Comfort operating in an early-stage environment with imperfect information and rapid iteration
• A first-principles, hands‑on builder - you’d rather own the whole problem than a narrow slice

Preferred Skills

• Experience with roll‑out or composite-substrate solar arrays (ROSA-class or similar)
• Background at SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing or comparable
• Experience with high‑power‑density spacecraft or large deployable structures
• Prior founding-team or early-startup experience
• Familiarity with design-for-manufacturing and serial satellite production

Pay range and compensation package

• Base salary: Commensurate with experience
• Equity: Meaningful founding equity
• Benefits: Medical, dental, and vision - 100% employee-covered
• PTO: Unlimited; no set hours
• Location: Los Angeles - Arts District office