Payload Engineer III

Firefly Aerospace; Town of Texas (WI); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental, and vision plans

Parental leave

Educational reimbursement

Short term disability

Flexible PTO

Job summary

Firefly Aerospace is seeking a Payload Engineer III to lead the design, analysis, development, and qualification of the payload segment and spacecraft interfaces for Alpha launch vehicles. You’ll own the hardware lifecycle from concept through flight, defining interfaces and documenting requirements for customers.

You will work closely with cross-functional teams to ensure hardware is producible, testable, and flight-ready, while mentoring junior engineers and supporting customer interfaces.

Qualifications

• B.S. in Mechanical, Aerospace, or related engineering field.
• 6+ years designing, analyzing, and qualifying hardware for aerospace/high-reliability systems.
• Experience with flight-critical structures or mechanisms.
• Design and test for extreme environments including vibration, shock, vacuum.
• Experience with carbon fiber and metallic structures.
• Proficiency with FEA and hand-calculation methods (Ansys, Femap).
• Understanding loads and dynamics for primary structures.
• Experience supporting production builds and nonconformances.
• Ability to define qualification/acceptance test programs and interpret test data.
• Experience with launch vehicle/spacecraft programs from development to flight.

Responsibilities

• Develop and produce payload segment and spacecraft interfaces for customers to deliver launch vehicle orbit goals.
• Create and manage hardware definitions via CAD, drawings, and documentation.
• Perform detailed analyses including structural margins, thermal effects, and tolerances.
• Lead testing to qualification and acceptance standards (e.g., SMC-S016, GEVS).
• Collaborate with Manufacturing, Quality, and Supply Chain to ensure producibility and flight-readiness.
• Support build, integration, and acceptance activities; resolve fit and performance issues.
• Provide technical mentorship to junior engineers and represent in customer meetings.

Skills

6+ years experience

Flight-critical structures

Loads & dynamics

FEA (Ansys/Femap)

Design for extreme environments

Qualification & acceptance test design

Customer facing technical roles

Scripting for analysis

Final stage integration hardware

Education

B.S. in Mechanical/Aerospace engineering

MS/PhD in Mechanical/Aerospace or 8+ years experience

Tools

CAD tools

Ansys/Femap

Job description

Career Opportunities with Firefly Aerospace

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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.