--- title: 'Director of Structures and Mechanisms at Outpost' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/director-of-structures-and-mechanisms-outpost-los-angeles-3fxdmy9b1mxw' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-12' --- # Director of Structures and Mechanisms at Outpost - **Company:** Outpost - **Location:** Los Angeles, CA - **Posted:** 2026-04-23 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-12 - **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/outpostspace/jobs/4675941006 ## Job description Director of Structures and Mechanisms Location: Playa Vista, California (in-person, five days per week) The return lane isn’t going to build itself. Come build it with us. Outpost is an orbital logistics company rewriting the rules of global logistics by building reusable Earth-return vehicles that unlock in-space manufacturing, on-orbit warehousing, and 60-minute global delivery through space. Our CarryAll vehicle family returns payloads ranging from 200 kilograms to 10 metric tons, lands within 10 meters of its target, and can then be refurbished and launched again. One vehicle, many missions: responsive logistics and precision delivery for national security; commercial cargo moved with real cadence; R&D payloads flown, tested, and refined across repeatable cycles; and critical aid delivered where roads and runways can’t reach. The demand is already here, validated through defense and civil agreements and supported by a growing pipeline of government and commercial customers. We have the customers, the team, and a clear technical path ahead of us. We’re building the return lane. Come build it with us. ## The Role The Director of Structures and Mechanisms is the executive technical leader for all primary structures, secondary structures, and deployable mechanisms across Outpost's Carryall vehicle. This role combines deep structural engineering expertise with leadership you will build, scale, and lead a multi-disciplinary team of structures, mechanisms, and mechanical engineers while owning the architecture, analysis, qualification, and flight certification of the entire structural system. Unlike traditional space vehicle roles where the structure simply needs to survive launch, you are designing for the round trip: launch vibration, the harsh vacuum of orbit, and the extreme thermal and mechanical loads of hypersonic re-entry and landing. You will own the technical execution of every structural element on the vehicle, with full accountability to executive leadership for overall flight readiness. We need a proven leader with the deep intuition that comes from seeing hardware fly (and fail), and the management experience to scale a world-class team around that expertise. ## Responsibilities - Build, grow, and lead the Structures & Mechanisms organization. Recruit, mentor, and develop engineers across multiple sub-disciplines (primary structure, mechanisms, TPS, analysis). - Serve as the final sign-off for the structural architecture of the vehicle, including primary structure, interfaces to the deployable heatshield, secondary structures, deployable mechanisms, and payload bay. - Partner cross-functionally to resolve system-level trades. Represent Structures in executive reviews, customer milestone reviews, and with government stakeholders. - Establish and enforce analysis standards across the team, hand calculations, FEA (ANSYS/FEMAP/NASTRAN), stiffness, buckling, fatigue, and thermal expansion compatibility. Be the final technical check on margin policy and verification logic. - Own the release process and quality bar for mechanical manufacturing drawings and geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (ASME Y14.5) across the department. - Coordinate with the production team on structural qualification campaign end-to-end, static load, random vibration, shock, deployment, and environmental testing, to certify hardware for flight. - Coordinate with the production team to stablish strategic relationships with machine shops, composite vendors, and external partners. Support make-vs-buy decisions and ensure supply chain resilience for precision flight hardware. - Brief the CEO, board, customers, and government partners on structural design, risk posture, and program status. ## Qualifications - Bachelor's degree or higher in Mechanical, Aerospace, or Structural Engineering. - 10+ years of experience in the design and analysis of complex aerospace structures and mechanisms, with at least 3+ years in a management or technical leadership role leading multi-disciplined engineering teams. - Proven track record leading structures on space vehicles or rockets. - Demonstrated experience hiring, scaling, and mentoring engineering teams of 5+ engineers; comfortable setting OKRs, running performance reviews, and managing costs. - Expert-level fluency in Siemens NX, SolidWorks, or similar parametric modeling software, with the ability to drive standards across the team. - Experience in structural analysis (FEA) and classical hand calculations. You must trust your hand calcs before you trust the solver. - Working knowledge of aerospace materials (aluminum, titanium, inconel, composites) and their behavior in extreme thermal environments. - Deep command of CNC machining, sheet metal, and welding with a design-for-manufacturing mindset you can instill across the org. ## Preferred Experience - Active U.S. Government Security Clearance (not required, but beneficial). - Experience with deployable space structures and mechanisms (booms, solar arrays, antennas, or aerobrakes). - Experience in taking primary structure from concept through PDR/CDR to flight. - Experience designing for high-heat environments or integrating with Thermal Protection Systems (TPS). - Deep knowledge of aerospace standards (NASA-STD-5000 series, SMC-S-016) for structural margins and testing. - Prior experience as a Director, Chief Engineer, or department head at a launch, reentry, satellite, or hypersonics company. ## Compensation & Benefits - Competitive compensation: $260,000– $290,000; (commensurate with experience), - Additional Compensation:  Annual performance-based bonuses that reward your impact. - Shared upside: Meaningful equity in Outpost so you share directly in the value you help create. - Comprehensive healthcare: Medical, dental, and vision coverage to keep you and your loved ones covered. We cover the base tier of medical insurance and all premiums of vision and dental. - Protection when it matters: Company-provided short- and long-term disability coverage for peace of mind, plus life insurance for even more security. - PTO: Recharge on your own terms with paid time off, plus 9 days of paid holidays. - Invest in your future: 401(k) with company match to help you build long-term wealth. - Fueled for the mission: Daily DoorDash lunch stipend, plus unlimited snacks, coffee, and tea to keep you energized. - Mission that matters: Work shoulder-to-shoulder with leaders from aerospace, new space, and deep-tech industries building the future of orbital infrastructure. - Pet Friendly Office: Bring your furry friend into the office so that they can be a part of our mission too. - Monthly Company Happy Hours and Events: Drinks at the local bar, hibachi nights, mini golfing and more! ## About Outpost ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Outpost is building fully-reusable Earth-return vehicles to enable rapid global logistics and in-space manufacturing, delivering cargo from orbit to any point on Earth within 60 minutes. - **Entity Type**: Private (Seed stage) - **Headquarters**: Los Angeles, California, United States - **Founded**: 2021 - **Founders**: Jason Dunn ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: Defense and Space Manufacturing - **Target customers**: U.S. Government (Army, Air Force, NASA), defense and humanitarian organizations, commercial space manufacturing firms - **Mission**: To create tomorrow’s infrastructure by delivering cargo anywhere on Earth in under 60 minutes and manufacturing next-gen materials in orbit — faster, cleaner, and with greater precision. ## Products & Services - **Carryall (Re-Entry Vehicle)**: A reusable, scalable Earth-return platform that launches on commercial rockets, glides back from orbit, and delivers multi-ton cargo within 25 meters of its target. Capable of returning payloads from orbit to Earth in under 60 minutes. - **Ferryall (Orbital Testbed)**: A vehicle for routine access to orbit for payloads, experiments, and research, delivering them back to Earth within hours. Serves as a hypersonics test bed and TRL-raising mission platform. - **Precision Airdrop System**: A delivery system deployable from aircraft (from a few hundred feet AGL up to 65,000' MSL) that lands cargo with 25-meter precision, designed for conflict zones, disaster areas, and remote operations. - **In-Space Manufacturing**: Orbital manufacturing capabilities, starting with ultra-low-loss fiber optics that offer 10-20x the performance of terrestrially manufactured fiber, enabling faster AI inference, lower data center energy use, and faster global communications. ## Market Standing - **Valuation**: Not disclosed - **Key Metric**: $7.1M total funding (Seed round, August 2022, with 7 investors) - **Annual Revenue**: Approximately $1.0M - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Backed by contracts and awards from the U.S. Army, U.S. Air Force, NASA, and other mission-critical customers. Supported by expert investors with deep space and defense experience. - **Growth Signals**: Headcount of 30 employees with +5.7% monthly growth; 11 active job postings; leadership team with proven track record of generating over $2.5 billion in contracts and awards and recruiting over $500 million in capital at previous ventures. ## Competitive Advantages - **Proven Leadership**: Founder Jason Dunn was co-founder and CTO of Made In Space (acquired, later IPO as Redwire NYSE: RDW), where he led the development of the first 3D printers and in-space fiber optics manufacturing technologies in orbit. President Amir Blachman was the first employee and Chief Business Officer at Axiom Space, where he helped raise over $500M and secure $2.3B in contracts. - **Deep Engineering Talent**: VP of Engineering Julie Newman is a former Boeing Chief Engineer and NASA JPL lead engineer on the Europa Clipper mission, with prior avionics experience at SpaceX on Falcon 9 and Crew Dragon. - **First-Mover in Earth Return**: Pioneering the return-to-Earth architecture for logistics, filling a critical gap in the space economy for reusable, precise cargo return. - **Multi-Mission Platform**: The same vehicle enables both cargo delivery and in-space manufacturing return, creating a dual revenue stream. ## Strategic Focus - Scaling the company’s commercial and government business, with an emphasis on defense logistics, disaster relief, and rapid mobility. - Developing a novel reentry vehicle system defining the future of high-speed logistics and in-space manufacturing. - Expanding orbital manufacturing capabilities, starting with advanced fiber optics for telecom and AI infrastructure. - Building long-term operating model for space logistics and in-space manufacturing. ## Why Work Here - **Mission-Driven Work**: A chance to build the infrastructure that lets humanity move anything, anywhere, at the speed of space — working on technology that has direct impact on defense, humanitarian aid, and next-generation manufacturing. - **High-Caliber Team**: Work alongside former SpaceX, Boeing, NASA JPL, and Axiom Space engineers in a fast-paced startup environment. - **Culture of Urgency**: Described as a "mission-focused team, building with urgency, grit, and care for the work we do and the people we do it with." - **Location**: Based in Los Angeles, California, with all current open positions listed as on-site in Los Angeles. - **Growth Stage**: At 30 employees with rapid hiring, early employees have significant impact and ownership. - **Open Roles**: Currently hiring for 16 positions including Mechanical Engineer, Director of Structures and Mechanisms, Senior Paraglider & Parachute Engineer, VP of Engineering - Vehicle, Senior Software Architect, Senior Avionics Engineer, and Mission Manager. ## Sources 1. [outpost.space](https://www.outpost.space/) 2. [outpost.space/company](https://www.outpost.space/company) 3. [outpost.space/careers](https://www.outpost.space/careers) 4. [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/outpostspace) 5. 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