Staff Mechanical Engineer: Solar Deployables

Muon Space, Inc.; San Jose (CA); Hybrid; USD 202,000 - 223,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity compensation

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

Job summary

Muon Space in San Jose, CA seeks a Staff Mechanical Engineer to own design, qualification, and sustainment of deployable mechanisms powering spacecraft. You will lead SADA, HDRMs, hinges, dampers, and latches from requirements through on-orbit operation, collaborating across disciplines to deliver high-reliability solutions.

The role requires 10+ years in mechanisms, strong CAD/ GD&T skills, and a proven track record in space hardware qualification, with a hybrid on-site schedule three days per

Qualifications

• BS in Mechanical Engineering or related field.
• 10+ years designing, building, and testing mechanisms or deployable hardware, including 5+ in space.
• Deep expertise in solar deployables, SADA, HDRMs/release devices, hinges, dampers, or precision mechanisms.
• Strong mechanism analysis skills: torque/force margin, kinematics, bearings/tribology, preload, stiffness.
• Proven track record qualifying single-point-failure mechanisms with deployment, life, and environmental tests.
• CAD (SolidWorks preferred), GD&T, drawings, BOMs, and tolerance/mass/torque budgets.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills; thrives in fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities

• Be technical owner for deployable mechanisms and set architecture across missions.
• Lead trades on deployable architectures balancing reliability, cost, schedule.
• Design, analyze, and optimize deployment mechanisms, actuators, and release devices.
• Manage single-point-failure margin, redundancy, and test-coverage strategy.
• Own mechanism qualification campaigns including gravity offload, lifecycle, and environmental tests.
• Define and champion mechanism design standards for the organization.
• Mentor engineers and lead rigorous design reviews (PDR, CDR, MRR).
• Drive production readiness from prototype to constellation-scale builds.

Skills

Mechanisms design

Solar deployables

SADA

HDRMs

Hinges

Dampers

Latches

CAD (SolidWorks)

GD&T

Tolerance budgets

Torque/force margin

Single-point-failure qualification

Flight heritage

NASA-STD-5017 / ECSS

Engineering standards & practices

Vendor management

Education

B.S. in Mechanical Engineering

Tools

SolidWorks

Job description

Muon Space in San Jose, CA seeks a Staff Mechanical Engineer to own design, qualification, and sustainment of deployable mechanisms powering spacecraft. You will lead SADA, HDRMs, hinges, dampers, and latches from requirements through on-orbit operation, collaborating across disciplines to deliver high-reliability solutions.

The role requires 10+ years in mechanisms, strong CAD/ GD&T skills, and a proven track record in space hardware qualification, with a hybrid on-site schedule three days per