Senior Manufacturing Engineer (Reentry)

Socket.dev; California (MO); On-site; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Inversion is seeking a Senior Manufacturing Engineer, Reentry, to own manufacturing and integration tasks across multiple vehicle programs. You will bridge design and flight hardware, establishing assembly standards and workflows for structures, mechanism integration, TPS, and complex interfaces.

You will mentor junior engineers and align with the centralized production team to ensure safe, repeatable builds.

Qualifications

• Experience leading manufacturing engineering for new product introduction.
• Proficient in writing manufacturing work instructions and procedures.
• Ability to mentor junior engineers and coordinate with production teams.

Responsibilities

• Develop and optimize assembly and integration processes for vehicle programs.
• Author and approve detailed work instructions, structural procedures, and checklists.
• Design, procure, and qualify vehicle integration tooling and GSE using CAD software.
• Lead disposition of floor non-conformances (MRB) and perform root-cause analysis.

Skills

Manufacturing engineering

Assembly & integration

Root-cause analysis

Mentoring juniors

Cross-functional coordination

Tools

CAD software

GSE tooling

Job description

Turning Space into a Transportation Layer for Earth

Who We Are:

Inversion builds advanced reentry systems to deliver next-generation capabilities from space.

Our mission is to make Earth radically more accessible by turning Low-Earth Orbit into an on-demand logistics domain. We see space not as a destination, but as a platform — one that unlocks unprecedented speed and global reach.

Our spacecraft are designed to deliver payloads anywhere on Earth in under an hour, operating through extreme reentry conditions and landing with high precision. These systems open the door to new ways of testing, delivering, and operating at hypersonic speeds.

Inherently dual-use, our technology is built to meet urgent national security needs while laying the groundwork for future commercial applications. Backed by leading investors including Y Combinator, Spark Capital, and Lockheed Martin Ventures, and working with partners such as the U.S. Space Force and NASA, Inversion is pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in space-based defense and logistics.

What You'll Do

As a Senior Manufacturing Engineer, Reentry at Inversion, you will report directly to the Director of Mechanical, Reentry. In this role, you will broadly own new product introduction manufacturing and integration engineering tasks across multiple vehicle programs. You will bridge the gap between design and physical flight hardware, establishing the assembly standards and integration workflows for primary structures, mechanism integration, thermal protection systems (TPS), and complex mechanical interfaces. You will work autonomously to solve high-complexity assembly challenges, mentor junior engineers, and coordinate closely with the centralized production team to ensure Inversion's vehicles are built safely, repeatedly, and on schedule.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop, optimize, and contribute to various vehicle program assembly and integration processes, with an emphasis on new product introduction and qualification/protoqualification hardware
• Author, review, and approve detailed manufacturing work instructions, structural assembly procedures, and integration checklists.
• Design, procure, and qualify vehicle integration tooling, assembly fixtures, and ground support equipment (GSE) using CAD software.
• Lead the disposition of floor non-conformances (MRB), perform rigorous root-cause