Principal Mechanical Engineer

The Exploration Company GmbH; Delaware; On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

The Exploration Company is seeking a Principal Mechanical Engineer to lead the Mechanical Engineering discipline for Nyx Earth, ensuring robust and verifiable mechanical systems ready for flight. You will manage a team of engineers, drive structural design, and coordinate analyses and test campaigns across the development lifecycle.

Fluent English is required; experience with large space systems and aerospace verification processes is essential.

Qualifications

• More than 10 years of experience in spacecraft or high-performance engineering environments.
• Strong background in structure design, structural analysis, justification, and verification.
• Proven experience leading engineering teams and developing technical talent.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Mechanical Engineering team, defining priorities and delivering engineering excellence.
• Support mechanical design of spacecraft and major assemblies ensuring robust, manufacturable designs.
• Provide technical leadership on primary/secondary structures and interfaces, aligning design intent with verification.

Skills

Leadership

Structural analysis

Verification

Test campaigns

Team management

Communication

Problem solving

Collaboration

Education

Degree in Aerospace Engineering

Degree in Mechanical Engineering

Job description

Introduction

Here at The Exploration Company, we are building spacecrafts for humanity.

We are looking for a Principal Mechanical Engineer, to lead the Mechanical Engineering discipline for Nyx Earth, ensuring that mechanical systems are robust, justified, verified, and ready for flight.

Key Responsibilities

As a Principal you will manage a team of Mechanical Engineers, drive structural design and verification activities, and ensure technical excellence across structural analysis, testing, qualification, and verification. You will coordinate your work with the Principal CAD Engineer and with the Vehicle Mechanical Architect, under the guidance of the Mechanical Design Lead. You will play a key role in enabling the successful development of one of Europe's most ambitious space vehicles.

• Lead the Mechanical Engineering team, defining priorities, supporting growth, and ensuring engineering excellence and delivery.
• Support and collaborate to the mechanical design of the spacecraft and its major assemblies, ensuring structurally efficient, robust, manufacturable, and verifiable design solutions throughout the development lifecycle.
• Provide technical leadership on the design of primary and secondary structures, large assemblies, equipment supports, and critical mechanical interfaces, ensuring consistency between design intent, structural justification, and verification strategy.
• Own structural justification activities across the spacecraft, ensuring consistency of assumptions, margins, analyses, and engineering evidence.
• Coordinate structural analyses and mechanical verification activities, with focus on test strategy and execution, from test definition and prediction to result interpretation and model correlation, ensuring results are coherent, traceable, and aligned with programme objectives.
• Ensure verification evidence generated through testing and analysis is robust, review-ready, and suitable for qualification and certification activities towards space agencies.
• Drive technical reviews, risk identification, and engineering maturity assessments to ensure readiness for major programme milestones.
• Act as a hands‑on technical leader, actively contributing to engineering decisions, test campaigns, anomaly investigations, and troubleshooting efforts.

What We Would Love to See from You

Qualifications:

• Degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.
• More than 10 years experience in spacecraft, launch vehicle, aerospace, defence, or other high-performance engineering environments.
• Strong background in structure design, structural analysis, justification, qualification, and verification.
• Proven experience leading engineering teams and developing technical talent.
• Demonstrated experience supporting complex structural test campaigns, from preparation and prediction through execution and data interpretation.
• Experience with qualification, certification, and engineering review processes.
• Profound knowledge of space industry standards and methodologies.
• Fluent in English. German, French, or Italian are an asset.

Skills and Behaviors:

• Ability to translate complex engineering challenges into clear decisions and actionable plans.
• Strong leadership and mentoring skills within engineering teams.
• Excellent collaboration across multidisciplinary teams and external partners.
• Strong analytical mindset and engineering judgement.
• Clear and effective communication with technical and programme stakeholders.
• Strong problem-solving skills and attention to detail.
• Strong organisation and prioritisation capabilities.
• Positive and pragmatic attitude to get the job done.
• Demonstrates behaviors consistent with The Exploration Company’s core values of Vision, Mission, Competence, Integrity and Team Spirit.

Why you should join us!

What makes us special here at The Exploration Company and why we think you will enjoy working here is:

• We’re Agile - we make decisions fast whilst keeping our goals and systems in mind
• We’re Open and Collaborative - we are transparent about risks and obstacles, so that we can cooperate to overcome them
• We have a lot of Fun - we refuel our energy knowing we are democratising space. It’s a wonderful and rare opportunity, are YOU up for the challenge?

The Exploration Company is an equal opportunity employer and values diversity. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability status. Relocation assistance is provided for those willing to relocate including visa sponsorship where applicable.
All offers are contingent upon the successful completion of a background check, which will be subject to the country, role, and project you applied for. By submitting your application, you acknowledge and agree that any offer of employment may be conditional upon successful condition of this check. The Exploration Company partners with Zinc Work Limited located in the UK (Zinc), a third-party provider, to ensure this process as efficient and transparent as possible.
If applicable, you will receive an email from Zinc upon acceptance of your offer with a link to a secure portal where you can provide the required information to Zinc.