---
title: 'Propulsion Design Reliability Engineer at Vast'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/propulsion-design-reliability-engineer-vast-long-beach-california-ma8622w1zfk9'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-10'
---

# Propulsion Design Reliability Engineer at Vast

- **Company:** Vast
- **Location:** Long Beach California, United States
- **Compensation:** $162k–$265k
- **Posted:** 2026-07-06
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-10
- **Apply:** https://boards.greenhouse.io/vast/jobs/4694841006?gh_jid=4694841006

## Job description

Vast is developing next-generation space stations and space infrastructure using an incremental, hardware-rich, and low-cost approach. Vast is rapidly developing its multi-module Haven Station to ensure a continuous human presence in space for America and its allies, enabling advanced microgravity research and manufacturing, and unlocking a new space economy for government, corporate, and private customers. Haven Demo’s 2025 success made Vast the only operational commercial space station company to fly and operate its own spacecraft. Next, Haven-1 is expected to become the world’s first commercial space station when it launches in 2027, followed by additional Haven modules. Additionally, the company recently announced Vast Satellite, a high-power satellite product line leveraging its space station components and the heritage of Haven Demo.

Headquartered in Long Beach, California, and with more than 1,000 employees and over a billion dollars in private capital, Vast has built the facilities required to manufacture and operate America’s next space station. The company plans to develop future habitats and systems for the Moon and Mars, dedicated space stations for government partners, and other crewed systems that will unlock the expanding long-term space economy.

Vast is looking for a Propulsion Design Reliability Engineer, reporting to the Director of Design Reliability, to guide the design, verification, and validation of Haven-1, an  the world's first commercial human-rated space station..

As a Propulsion Design Reliability Engineer, you will ensure the propulsion system on Haven-1 is appropriately designed and functions reliably, without failure, over their intended lifespan by integrating reliability principles directly into the design process. You will drive Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA), guide test plan definition and review verification & validation data, and facilitate design teams to prevent failures before manufacturing. You will work closely with hardware teams to ensure build practices meet design intent, define test methodologies, and analyze field data to improve design robustness. You will be responsible for shepherding the Haven-1 propulsion system through detailed design and transitioning the space station from design,  to a built and tested station ready to host humans in space.

This will be a full-time, exempt position located in our Long Beach location.

Technical Leadership:

- Guide design of the propulsion systems for a large scale space station.
- Cultivate Vast's understanding of static and dynamic loads, vibrations, thermal, combustion and other propulsion considerations to drive design decisions.
- Lead the technical reviews providing clear, decisive guidance of mechanical design and analysis, manufacturing drawings, test plans, concept of operations, during milestone design reviews and major risk gates.
- Provide critical peer review and approval of hardware designs during design reviews, and of acceptance and qualification test campaigns
- Ensure that the Vast's design process & design criteria/requirements are being followed for flight, launch, and ground support systems.
- Set the standard for acceptance and qualification test completeness for flight systems, ensuring our test campaigns are robust, disciplined, and aligned with human-rated reliability.
- Bring deep engineering intuition to test campaigns, identifying risks early and helping teams converge on safe, resilient solutions.

Design Excellence:

- Architect Vast’s propulsion engineering standards, design guides, and review frameworks; build tools that enable fast, confident decision-making at all levels across the company.
- Develop design criteria, requirements, and verification approaches to support haven-1 design architecture
- Make engineering best practices accessible and actionable, especially for engineers moving rapidly under ambitious program timelines.
- Support and elevate engineering teams across the organization by bringing broad experience in design, build cycles, integration, and test.
- Turn organizational knowledge into lasting guidance by capturing lessons learned and strengthening future standards.

Process Ownership:

- Build and steward the processes that ensure engineering rigor at scale—ensuring designs meet standards, reviews are comprehensive, and changes are consistently implemented.
- Own and continuously refine design review templates, reliability checklists, and internal design guides.
- Track design maturity and compliance across the station and vehicle architecture, ensuring nothing slips through the cracks.
- Build tools, frameworks, and automation that empower engineers to explore design trade-offs and risks with clarity and speed.

Change and Configuration management:

- Work across all facets of the engineering organization to improve vehicle reliability.
- Partner with configuration and change management so that every update to flight hardware is intentional, reviewed, and fully understood.
- Drive technical trades for the vehicle and enable decisions backed by strong physics based engineering rational
- Coordinate between Change Management, Risk, and Engineering teams to ensure design revisions drive continuous improvement on the vehicle
- Partner with the internal software team to ensure system data, configuration details, and design decisions are well organized and accessible.

Risk Management:

- Partner with the Risk management team to identify Risk, and drive design improvements with engineering to mitigate.
- Work with Risk Management and Engineering to quantify Risk and failure probability through rigorous engineering rational
- Drive FMEA and Fault tree analysis across all engineering systems to identify and drive down risk
- Drive best practices for traceability and verification & validation of design revisions to thoroughly document risk mitigations across flight, launch, and ground support systems.

Minimum Qualifications:

- Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Physics, or related Engineering discipline
- 6+ years of related professional work experience in responsible engineering, design ownership, systems integration, test engineering, or reliability-focused development.

Preferred Skills & Experience:

- 10+ years of related professional work experience in responsible engineering, design ownership, systems integration, test engineering, or reliability-focused development.
- Experience in Responsible Engineering, Systems Engineering, Office of the Chief Engineer, or Reliability Engineering roles on complex aerospace systems.
- Hands-on experience designing, assembling, integrating, or testing hardware.
- Background with spacecraft, aircraft, launch vehicles, or other mission- or safety-critical systems.
- Familiarity with fracture control, reliability methodologies, or human-rated hardware standards.
- Experience creating engineering standards, review templates, or technical guidance frameworks.
- Strong scripting and data analysis skills (Python, MATLAB, Excel) and familiarity with visualization tools (e.g., Tableau).
- Knowledge of manufacturing processes, materials selection, and hardware qualification pathways.
- Strong systems-level intuition and the ability to anticipate and articulate risks early.

Additional Requirements:

- Willingness to work overtime, or weekends to support critical mission milestones.

Pay Range: California $162,360—$265,392 USD

We calibrate level and compensation to the selected candidate's experience and demonstrated capability. We welcome applicants across a range of experience levels to apply.

## COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

Base salary will vary depending on job-related knowledge, education, skills, experience, business needs, and market demand. Salary is just one component of our comprehensive compensation package. Full-time employees also receive company equity, as well as access to a full suite of compelling benefits and perks, including: medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and dependents, generous paid time off; up to 20+ days of vacation for exempt staff and up to 10+ days of vacation for non-exempt staff with the ability to cash-out unused vacation annually, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability insurance, life insurance, access to a 401(k) retirement plan, ClassPass credits, personalized mental healthcare through Spring Health, and other discounts and perks. We also take pride in offering exceptional food perks, with snacks, drip coffee & onsite barista, cold drinks, and dinner meals remaining free of charge, and lunch subsidized as part of Vast’s ongoing commitment to providing high-quality meals for employees.

## U.S. EXPORT CONTROL COMPLIANCE STATUS

The person hired will have access to information and items subject to U.S. export controls, and therefore, must either be a “U.S. person” as defined by [22 C.F.R. § 120.62](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-22/section-120.62) or otherwise eligible for deemed export licensing. This status includes U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, lawful permanent residents (green card holders), and asylees and refugees with such status granted, not pending.

## EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

Vast is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Vast is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

## About Vast

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Aerospace, space infrastructure, commercial space stations
- **Target customers**: B2B (government space agencies, research institutions, pharmaceutical/biotech companies, satellite operators), B2C (private astronaut missions)
- **Mission or purpose statement**: “Our long-term vision is to create artificial gravity stations, allowing humanity to live and work in space without long-term harm to the body.” – Jed McCaleb

## Products & Services
- **Haven-1**: The world’s first commercial space station, a single-module habitat launching in 2027 aboard a Falcon 9. Designed for 4-crew missions of up to 30 days, with microgravity research lab (10 payload slots), large window dome, always-on Wi-Fi, and Starlink laser communications. [vastspace.com](https://www.vastspace.com/)
- **Haven-2**: A planned multi-module space station designed as a commercial successor to the ISS. First module (based on Haven-1 but stretched) to launch on Falcon Heavy in 2028, with full configuration of eight modules by 2032. Will compete for NASA’s Commercial LEO Destinations (CLD) Phase 2. [wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vast_(company))
- **Haven Demo**: A 500 kg demonstration satellite launched in November 2025, successfully tested communications, power, propulsion, and deorbit capabilities. Operated for three months before controlled reentry in February 2026. [vastspace.com](https://www.vastspace.com/)
- **High-Power Satellite Buses**: Leveraging in-house space station technology, Vast has expanded into designing and building high-power satellite buses for commercial and government customers. [vastspace.com](https://www.vastspace.com/)

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed. However, the company raised $500M in March 2026 ($300M equity + $200M debt). [wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vast_(company))
- **Key Metric**: Total funding to date – at least $500M (March 2026), plus prior undisclosed rounds led by founder Jed McCaleb.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Balerion Space Ventures, IQT, Qatar Investment Authority, Mitsui & Co., MUFG, Nikon Corporation, Stellar Ventures, Space Capital, Earthrise Ventures, Jed McCaleb. Partners include SpaceX (launch provider, Starlink), Impulse Space (propulsion), AnySignal, TRL11, Addvalue, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, CASIS, UK Space Agency, European Space Agency, NASA (CCSC-2 agreement). [wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vast_(company)) [vastspace.com](https://www.vastspace.com/)
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - Won the sixth commercial ISS astronaut mission contract (Feb 2026), with ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet as commander. 
  - Signed multi-mission agreements with France (to ISS and Haven-1) and the Czech Republic (via ESA). 
  - Completed primary structure of Haven-1 – the first U.S. space station flight article built in over 20 years. 
  - Headcount grew from 606+ (Oct 2024) to “1000+ team members” by mid-2026. 
  - Former NASA CEO Steve Isakowitz and veteran astronauts Andrew Feustel and Garrett Reisman joined as advisors/team members. [vastspace.com](https://www.vastspace.com/) [wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vast_(company))

## Competitive Advantages
- **First-mover in commercial space stations**: Vast is the only operational commercial space station company to have flown and operated its own spacecraft in orbit (Haven Demo). 
- **Hardware-rich, low-cost approach**: Rapid iteration and in-house manufacturing enable faster development than competitors. 
- **Artificial gravity vision**: Long-term differentiator for human health in space – a key gap in current ISS and other station designs. 
- **Strong talent pipeline**: Leadership includes serial entrepreneurs (Max Haot, Jed McCaleb) and top SpaceX and NASA veterans (CTO Alex Hudson, COO Kris Young, astronaut Andrew Feustel). 
- **Strategic partnerships**: Deep relationships with SpaceX, international space agencies, and research institutions provide launch, funding, and mission opportunities.

## Strategic Focus
- **Haven-1 launch and crewed missions**: Complete assembly, launch in 2027, and execute the first Vast-1 crew mission (4 astronauts, ~14 days). 
- **Haven-2 development**: Compete for NASA’s CLD Phase 2 contract (decision expected July 2026) to become a primary ISS replacement. 
- **Expand microgravity research network**: Partner with pharmaceutical, biotech, and materials science companies for in-space manufacturing and R&D. 
- **International expansion**: Secure additional government astronaut missions (France, UK, Czech Republic) and explore Indian launch capabilities. 
- **High-power satellite bus business**: Leverage in-house technology to capture commercial and defense satellite contracts.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: “All in” – bottom-up engineering, first principles, extreme ownership, rapid progress, and celebration of wins. Emphasizes respect, curiosity, and excellence. [vastspace.com](https://www.vastspace.com/careers)
- **Benefits**: Long-term equity incentive, 401(k), generous PTO with annual cash-out, paid parental leave, comprehensive medical/dental/vision, subsidized meals, fitness memberships, and wellness benefits. [vastspace.com](https://www.vastspace.com/careers)
- **Work environment**: In-office in Long Beach, CA. State-of-the-art 115,000 sq ft facility with manufacturing operations. 
- **Engineering culture**: Agile, risk-tolerant, and driven by passion for space. Team includes former SpaceX, NASA, and top aerospace engineers. 
- **Impact**: Directly building the future of long-term space habitation – a mission-driven environment with ambitious timelines and tangible results.

## Sources
1. [vastspace.com](https://www.vastspace.com/)
2. [vastspace.com/careers](https://www.vastspace.com/careers)
3. [wikipedia.org](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vast_(company))
4. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/vastspace)

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