Senior Mechanical Engineer (Space Structures)

Location: On-site in Los Angeles (Hawthorne), California, United States. Occasional travel required.

Salary: $165,000–$200,000 per year.

Company

hirify.global develops and manufactures robotic systems and space technologies for producing water, power, and oxygen on the Moon and Mars. The Starlight Solar department builds high-performance space solar power systems for satellites and planetary equipment.

What you will do

• Own solar array structural systems from architecture and detailed design through analysis, fabrication, qualification, flight, and production.
• Define structural requirements, load cases, safety factors, margins, verification methods, and test programs.
• Design lightweight structures, interfaces, brackets, housings, mechanisms, joints, and efficient load paths.
• Perform and review hand calculations and FEA for stress, stiffness, buckling, fatigue, thermal distortion, modal response, vibration, and dynamic environments.
• Lead structural design reviews, qualification testing, test-to-model correlation, failure investigations, and corrective actions.
• Collaborate with thermal, avionics, mechanisms, controls, systems, manufacturing, and suppliers while mentoring engineers.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical, aerospace, structural engineering, or a related discipline.
• 6+ years of mechanical-design or structural-engineering experience, including ownership of complex hardware through qualification or production.
• Strong knowledge of structural mechanics, load paths, joints, stress, stiffness, buckling, fatigue, and structural dynamics.
• Proficiency with 3D CAD, GD&T, tolerance analysis, engineering drawings, hand calculations, and FEA.
• Experience defining structural tests, correlating analytical models with test data, and improving mechanical hardware through hands-on testing.
• Must meet U.S. export-control eligibility requirements: U.S. citizen or national, lawful permanent resident, qualifying refugee or asylee, or eligible to obtain the required government authorizations.

Nice to have

• Experience with Nastran, Abaqus, Ansys, Femap, or similar FEA tools.
• Spaceflight-proven structures, deployable mechanisms, aerospace materials, fasteners, joint design, and structural margin policies.
• Experience with static, vibration, shock, modal, thermal distortion, fatigue, and coupled-loads qualification campaigns.
• Knowledge of NASA-STD-5001, GEVS, and other aerospace structural standards.
• Experience transitioning prototype flight hardware into repeatable production.

Culture & Benefits

• Health, dental, vision, and retirement plans.
• Paid time off, holidays, and flexible policies supporting work-life balance.
• Training and professional development opportunities.
• Mission-driven, collaborative environment focused on robotics and space technology.
• Opportunity to own high-impact engineering work shaping future space systems.