Senior Space Ground Test & Automation Engineer

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

Benefits offered by this job

Stock options

Long-term cash awards

Job summary

Varda Space Industries in El Segundo, CA is seeking a Senior Terrestrial Automation & Controls Engineer to design, build, and own ground test infrastructure for spaceflight hardware qualification.

You will work with PLCs, Beckhoff TwinCAT 3, EtherCAT, and real-time control loops, collaborating with propulsion, avionics, GNC and manufacturing teams to deliver ambitious test systems on aggressive timelines.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering or related technical field.
• 5+ years of industry experience in test automation, controls, and/or industrial automation.
• Hands-on experience integrating with industrial hardware over EtherCAT, Modbus (TCP/RTU), RS-232/485 or similar.
• Experience with at least one modern PLC ecosystem—Beckhoff TwinCAT 3 with structured text (IEC 61131-3).
• Comfort designing electrical panels, wiring cabinets, debugging hardware, and writing control software.
• Thrives in a fast-paced startup environment with end-to-end ownership.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain test systems and ground support equipment (GSE) for flight hardware qualification and manufacturing operations.
• Integrate with external hardware including environmental chambers, ovens, chillers, and data acquisition hardware.
• Develop and extend internal PLC framework and EtherCAT tooling to support evolving program needs.
• Evaluate real-time control approaches, PLC-based vs Linux-based for high-frequency control.
• Build cabinets, wire panels, and own systems end-to-end from electrical design through commissioning.
• Collaborate with propulsion, avionics, GNC, and manufacturing teams to meet aggressive timelines.
• Champion sustainable engineering practices to ramp new engineers on the tech stack.

Skills

EtherCAT

Modbus

RS-232/485

PLC expertise

TwinCAT 3

Electrical panels

Hard real-time control

Python orchestration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering

Tools

Beckhoff TwinCAT 3

IEC 61131-3

Grafana

InfluxDB

Job description

Varda Space Industries in El Segundo, CA is seeking a Senior Terrestrial Automation & Controls Engineer to design, build, and own ground test infrastructure for spaceflight hardware qualification.

You will work with PLCs, Beckhoff TwinCAT 3, EtherCAT, and real-time control loops, collaborating with propulsion, avionics, GNC and manufacturing teams to deliver ambitious test systems on aggressive timelines.