---
title: 'Mechanical Engineer (Solar) at Starcloud'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-solar-starcloud-redmond-114g11kxkhbx'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-08'
---

# Mechanical Engineer (Solar) at Starcloud

- **Company:** Starcloud
- **Location:** Redmond, WA
- **Posted:** 2026-05-11
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-08
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/starcloud/jobs/5216614008

## Job description

Company Overview:

Starcloud is building a network of data centers in space, starting at kilowatts and scaling to gigawatt capacity. Falling launch costs allow us to take advantage of the abundant energy, radiative cooling techniques, and ability to rapidly scale in space. Join our team, push the boundaries of the space economy, and be part of this pioneering effort to redefine the future of energy.

Position Overview:

As a Mechanical Engineer (Solar) at Starcloud, you will be at the heart of designing, developing, and integrating the power-generation backbone for our space-based data centers. You will own the full lifecycle of our solar array mechanical systems, from concept and deployment kinematics to orbital operation, working closely with senior leadership and multidisciplinary teams to rapidly and iteratively deliver low cost, reliable space hardware at huge scale.

Key Responsibilities:

- Design and Development:
- Create and manage detailed CAD models from the component level up to the spacecraft level, accounting for complex stowed (launch) and deployed (orbital) configurations.
- Perform structural, kinematic, and thermal analyses using FEA and hand calculations to ensure solar hardware survives launch and performs during in-orbit thermo-elastic cycling.
- Own the lifecycle of mechanical components, iteratively driving projects from initial concept through to manufacturing, testing, and deployment.
- Collaborate on system-level requirements and design criteria to develop holistic DFM strategies that optimize for manufacturability, cost, and reliability.
- Ensure timely project delivery with high standards of quality and performance through pragmatic project management.
- Testing and Validation:
- Design and execute comprehensive test plans to validate designs under launch and space environments.
- Perform rigorous environmental and performance testing to demonstrate compliance with requirements.
- Production and Integration:
- Partner with supply chain and manufacturing teams to establish efficient production processes.
- Optimize designs for ease of integration and production.
- Collaborate with vendors to ensure the flawless delivery and integration of mechanical components.

Basic Qualifications:

- Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related field.
- Proficiency with advanced CAD software, ideally NX and teamcenter.
- Experience with FEA software for high-fidelity structural analysis, ideally Ansys.
- Minimum of 2+ years of hands-on experience in mechanical design, analysis, testing, and/or manufacturing.
- Strong understanding and application of GD&T principles.

Preferred Qualifications:

- Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related technical discipline.
- 3+ years of professional experience in mechanical design of solar products
- Expertise in materials selection, advanced manufacturing methods, and surface treatments for space applications.
- Experience with PCB design and PCBA mechanical integration.

Compensation and Benefits:

Annual salary: L1: $105,000 - $140,000

L2: $140,000 - $190,000

L3: $170,000 - $215,000

Starcloud offers a competitive salary and benefits package, including:

- Stock options, discretionary bonuses, and other long-term incentives.
- Comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage.
- 401(k) retirement plan with company match.
- Short and long-term disability insurance, life insurance, and paid parental leave.
- Generous paid vacation, holidays, and sick leave.

Additional Requirements:

- Willingness to work extended hours and weekends as necessary to support critical project milestones.
- Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, or eligible for authorization under U.S. export regulations.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Starcloud is committed to fostering an inclusive and meritocratic workplace. We provide equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected status. Applicants requiring reasonable accommodation to the application/interview process should notify our Human Resources Department.

Join Starcloud and shape the future!

Embrace the challenge, push technological boundaries, and contribute to solving the global energy challenge. Apply today to join our visionary team dedicated to innovation and advancing humanity.

We receive many applications, and so we apologize that we may not be able to respond to every applicant.

## About Starcloud

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Starcloud designs, builds, and deploys orbital data centers that leverage continuous solar energy and radiative cooling to power AI training and inference at gigawatt scale.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A – $170M raised at $1.1B valuation in March 2026)
- **Headquarters**: Redmond, Washington, USA
- **Founded**: January 2024
- **Founders**: Philip Johnston (CEO), Ezra Feilden (CTO), Adi Oltean (Chief Engineer)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Space-based computing infrastructure / AI infrastructure
- **Target customers**: Hyperscale cloud providers, AI companies, defense agencies, and crypto-mining operators (B2B)
- **Mission**: “Change the paradigm of hyperscale data centers by deploying the largest training clusters on data centers in space, enabling the future of AI without terrestrial constraints.”

## Products & Services
- **Orbital Data Center Services**: GPU compute capacity in orbit – initially offering inference and training on Nvidia H100 GPUs, with plans to scale to micro data centers and eventually gigawatt “Hyperclusters” using Starship-class launch vehicles.
- **Starcloud-1 (Demonstrator)**: First satellite launched November 2025, equipped with an Nvidia H100 GPU – the most powerful GPU ever put in orbit. Used to train nanoGPT and run high-powered inference on synthetic-aperture radar data from Capella Space.
- **Planned Bitcoin Mining Service**: Announced intention to fly Bitcoin mining ASICs on its second satellite (Starcloud-2) in 2026.
- **Crusoe Cloud Integration**: Partnership to deploy Crusoe’s cloud platform on a Starcloud satellite by late 2026, with GPU capacity available from early 2027.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: $1.1 billion (as of March 2026 Series A) – fastest unicorn in Y Combinator history, reaching that milestone 17 months after completing the YC program.
- **Total Funding**: ~$204M ($34M seed + $170M Series A)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Benchmark (lead), EQT Ventures (co-lead), Sequoia scout fund, A16z scout fund, In-Q-Tel, NFX, Plug and Play, angel investors including AI expert Jan Leike. Partners include SpaceX (Starlink mini-lasers for connectivity), Nvidia (Inception program), Google Cloud Accelerator, Defense Innovation Unit, Crusoe Cloud.
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - Launched first test satellite with 100x more GPU power than any prior orbital mission.
  - First company to train a large language model (nanoGPT) in orbit.
  - Signed contract with SpaceX to integrate Starlink mini-lasers onto next 25 satellites.
  - Filed FCC proposal for a constellation of up to 88,000 satellites.
  - Expanded from 3 founders to 15 employees (2026) with active hiring across engineering disciplines.

## Competitive Advantages
- **First-mover advantage** in orbital data centers with proven in-orbit GPU operation and LLM training.
- **Radically lower energy/cooling costs**: Continuous solar energy (no batteries needed for daytime orbit) and passive radiative cooling eliminate the need for massive cooling infrastructure.
- **Rapid scalability without terrestrial permitting**: Can bypass the physical and regulatory constraints that limit Earth-based data center expansion.
- **Elite founding team**: CEO Philip Johnston (ex-McKinsey, Harvard/Wharton/Columbia), CTO Ezra Feilden (PhD, ex-Airbus Defence & Space, NASA Lunar Pathfinder), Chief Engineer Adi Oltean (ex-SpaceX tracking beams lead, 20-year Microsoft Azure GPU cluster veteran, 25+ patents).

## Strategic Focus
- **Near-term (2026–2027)**: Complete Starcloud-1 demonstrator mission, prototype micro-data center, secure contracts with hyperscalers, and launch Starcloud-2 with Bitcoin mining ASICs.
- **Medium-term**: Deploy a constellation of data-center satellites with Starlink laser links, scaling to hundreds of megawatts.
- **Long-term**: Build gigawatt-scale Hyperclusters using Starship-class launch vehicles, enabling massive AI training without environmental or permitting limits.

## Why Work Here
- **Cutting-edge deep-tech**: Work at the intersection of space systems, AI infrastructure, and high-performance computing – a rare combination.
- **Small, ambitious team** (15 people as of 2026) – offers outsized impact and ownership.
- **Founders with proven track records** at SpaceX, Microsoft Azure, and Airbus – strong mentorship and engineering culture.
- **Location**: Redmond, WA – close to SpaceX Starlink, Amazon Project Kuiper, and Microsoft Azure data center teams.
- **Open roles**: Electrical, Mechanical (loads, dynamics, mechanisms, satellite bus, solar), Thermal, Power Electronics, GNC, Software, Facilities, Head of Electrical Engineering, Head of Thermal Engineering – all in-office.
- **Culture**: Described as “innovative deep-tech engineers with big ambitions” – fast-paced, hands-on, and focused on rapid iteration.

## Sources
1. [starcloud.com](https://www.starcloud.com/) – company overview, white paper, team bios
2. [starcloud.com/team](https://www.starcloud.com/team) – founder and team details
3. [wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starcloud) – history, funding, partnerships, milestones
4. [ycombinator.com](https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/starcloud) – YC profile, achievements, mission
5. [greenhouse.io](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/starcloud) – current job listings (12 open roles)

## Other roles at Starcloud

- [Senior Harness Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-harness-engineer-starcloud-redmond-xptccrh7eak3) — Redmond, WA
- [Lead Thermal Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-thermal-engineer-starcloud-redmond-718psg54njf6) — Redmond, WA
- [Lead Electrical Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-electrical-engineer-starcloud-redmond-mja9f5hn7w77) — Redmond, WA
- [Mechanical Engineer (Loads and Dynamics)](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-loads-and-dynamics-starcloud-redmond-ck55x6k0r2aq) — Redmond, WA
- [Thermal Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/thermal-engineer-starcloud-redmond-vxhz7qy3wd1d) — Redmond, WA
- [Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-starcloud-redmond-j94a2n9as1x1) — Redmond, WA
- [Power Electronics Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/power-electronics-engineer-starcloud-redmond-e1qan6r6tn7m) — Redmond, WA
- [Mechanical Engineer (Mechanisms)](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-mechanisms-starcloud-redmond-cbcz8g5a5c3m) — Redmond, WA
- [Mechanical Engineer (Satellite Bus)](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineer-satellite-bus-starcloud-redmond-jc4bmvbk61sy) — Redmond, WA
- [Guidance, Navigation & Control (GNC) Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/guidance-navigation-control-gnc-engineer-starcloud-redmond-3fege46ntm3k) — Redmond, WA