Senior Mechanisms Engineer - Electromechanical Actuators

Cowboy Space; San Carlos (CA); On-site; CAD 209,000 - 251,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Medical Insurance

401(k) retirement savings plan

Paid time off

10 paid holidays per calendar year

Paid parental leave

Relocation assistance

Daily lunch in the office

Job summary

Cowboy Space Corp. in California seeks a Senior Mechanisms Engineer to own a vehicle mechanism subsystem from concept to flight. You’ll work with propulsion, structures, avionics, GNC, and launch ops to design, build, and validate mechanisms that impact mission success.

You’ll iterate on design, perform analyses (hand calcs, FEA), develop test campaigns, and own release documentation while collaborating on a fast-moving hardware startup environment.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering or related field.
• 5+ years of experience designing mechanisms or mechanical systems for flight vehicles or high-performance hardware.
• Experience taking hardware from concept through build, integration, and test.
• Strong fundamentals in structural mechanics, kinematics, materials, and manufacturing processes.
• Proficiency with CAD (NX, SolidWorks, CATIA, or Creo) and creating engineering drawings to ASME Y14.5 GD&T standards.
• Proficiency with FEA tools (ANSYS, Nastran, or Abaqus) for mechanism load-path and dynamic problems.
• Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.

Responsibilities

• Own your mechanism subsystem from concept through design, analysis, test, and flight.
• Drive structural and kinematic design for minimum mass while meeting strength, stiffness, fatigue, and operational-life requirements across ascent, entry, landing, and reuse environments.
• Balance performance, manufacturability, cost, and schedule in every design decision
• Perform analysis — hand calculations, FEA, tolerance stack-ups — and validate predictions with test and flight data.
• Define and execute qualification and acceptance test campaigns; author procedures, acceptance criteria, and anomaly dispositions.
• Develop and maintain engineering drawings, models, and release documentation.
• Work directly on the factory floor with manufacturing to iterate quickly and resolve build issues in real time.
• Troubleshoot hardware anomalies, perform root cause analysis, and implement design improvements.
• Support launch operations, post-flight inspection, and refurbishment planning.

Skills

Mechanisms design

Flight hardware

CAD software

FEA analysis

Structural mechanics

Test & integration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical or Aerospace Engineering

Tools

NX/SolidWorks/CATIA/Creo

ANSYS/Nastran/Abaqus

Job description

Cowboy Space Corp. in California seeks a Senior Mechanisms Engineer to own a vehicle mechanism subsystem from concept to flight. You’ll work with propulsion, structures, avionics, GNC, and launch ops to design, build, and validate mechanisms that impact mission success.

You’ll iterate on design, perform analyses (hand calcs, FEA), develop test campaigns, and own release documentation while collaborating on a fast-moving hardware startup environment.