Space Station Solar Array Mechanical Engineer

Vast Space Llc.; Long Beach, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 112,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Vast Space Llc. in Long Beach, CA, is seeking a Solar Array Engineer, Mechanical, to support design, analysis, build, and test of mechanisms for solar array deployment and articulation on human-rated space stations.

This full-time exempt role reports to the Principal Power Systems Engineer. The ideal candidate has 5–10 years of experience in electromechanical system design, with hands-on hardware experience and familiarity with NASA standards.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, or related discipline.
• 5–10 years of experience designing, building, and testing electromechanical systems, preferably for spacecraft or robotic systems.
• Experience with mechanism design fundamentals: bearings, gears, motors, springs, fasteners, and structural load paths.
• Ability to build and defend a torque budget or force budget for a mechanism from first principles.
• Experience with environmental testing of mechanical hardware (vibration, thermal cycling, life testing).
• Hands-on experience — you have built, assembled, or integrated the hardware you designed.

Responsibilities

• Design and analyze mechanisms for solar array deployment, including springs, latches, dampers, and hold-down/release devices.
• Design and analyze mechanisms for solar array articulation, including motorized gimbals, gear trains, bearings, and drive electronics interfaces.
• Maintain torque budgets for deployment and articulation mechanisms, including friction, harness resistance, disturbance torques, and margin verification per NASA-STD-5017B.
• Select and specify bearings, lubricants, motors, gearboxes, encoders/resolvers, and other drivetrain components for the space environment.
• Perform mechanism life analysis and define qualification test programs to demonstrate life margin.
• Design for integration and test — deployment test procedures, gravity offload, workmanship screens.
• Interface with structures, thermal, GN&C, and power teams to meet system-level requirements.
• Support environmental test campaigns per SMC-S-016
• Perform or support failure analysis and design reviews.

Skills

Bearings & gears

Environmental testing

Hands-on hardware

Mechanism design fundamentals

Torque budgets

Control & feedback architecture

Education

Bachelor's degree in mechanical or aerospace engineering

Tools

NX CAD

Teamcenter

MATLAB/Python

FEA

Job description

Vast Space Llc. in Long Beach, CA, is seeking a Solar Array Engineer, Mechanical, to support design, analysis, build, and test of mechanisms for solar array deployment and articulation on human-rated space stations.

This full-time exempt role reports to the Principal Power Systems Engineer. The ideal candidate has 5–10 years of experience in electromechanical system design, with hands-on hardware experience and familiarity with NASA standards.