Senior Propulsion Engineer: Hardware & Bus Systems On-Site

Varda Space Industries; El Segundo (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 179,000; Full time

Job summary

Varda Space Industries is seeking a Senior Propulsion Engineer – Hardware & Bus Systems to own propulsion subsystems across the satellite buses. You will lead architecture, analysis, sizing, tooling, data review, and testing on ground and in orbit while collaborating with an interdisciplinary team.

You will drive design quality, supervise anomaly investigations, develop cross-team roadmaps, and mentor engineers in a fast-paced environment, shaping future Varda vehicles and capabilities.

Qualifications

• B.S. in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering (or equivalent).
• 3+ years propulsions or fluid systems design, build, test for spacecraft/launch vehicles.
• Strong knowledge of flight fluid system hardware components and instrumentation.
• Ability to read and write P&IDs fluently.
• Proficient with CAD tools and PLM software.
• Experience authoring and executing ground or flight operations procedures.

Responsibilities

• Maintain propulsion baseline and system documentation.
• Design, analyze, test propulsion hardware and components.
• Plan upgrades for propulsion systems on operational vehicles.
• Define requirements and architecture for future vehicles; develop roadmaps.
• Produce propulsion performance analyses and data for cross‑team use.
• Build Python scripts to automate analysis and data reduction.
• Perform mechanical design and ANSYS/NASTRAN-based analyses.
• Author design docs, specs, and test procedures.
• Sit on console for propulsion operations; tough issue resolution.
• Mentor junior engineers and review technical work.

Skills

Propulsion systems

P&ID reading/writing

CAD tools

FEA software

Procedures & operations

Mentoring

Education

B.S. in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering

Tools

CATIA

SolidWorks

NX

PLM software

GFSSP

REFPROP

Job description

Varda Space Industries is seeking a Senior Propulsion Engineer – Hardware & Bus Systems to own propulsion subsystems across the satellite buses. You will lead architecture, analysis, sizing, tooling, data review, and testing on ground and in orbit while collaborating with an interdisciplinary team.

You will drive design quality, supervise anomaly investigations, develop cross-team roadmaps, and mentor engineers in a fast-paced environment, shaping future Varda vehicles and capabilities.