Senior Automation & Controls Engineer (Aerospace)

Location: On-site in El Segundo, California, United States. Employment requires lawful U.S. work authorization and qualification as a U.S. person for access to export-controlled technology.

Salary: $140,333–$179,314 per year, plus potential stock options and/or long-term cash awards.

Company

hirify.global develops commercial space infrastructure, including in-orbit pharmaceutical processing payloads, reentry capsules, heat shields, satellite buses, and related production and test systems.

What you will do

• Design, build, maintain, and commission test systems and ground support equipment for flight hardware qualification and manufacturing operations.
• Integrate thermal vacuum chambers, ovens, chillers, pressure systems, data acquisition hardware, and precision instrumentation.
• Develop and extend internal PLC frameworks and EtherCAT tooling.
• Contribute to real-time control architecture decisions, including PLC-based TwinCAT 3 and Linux-based approaches for high-frequency applications.
• Design electrical systems, build cabinets, wire panels, debug hardware, and own systems from electrical design through commissioning.
• Partner with propulsion, avionics, GNC, and manufacturing teams while establishing maintainable engineering practices.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related technical field.
• 5+ years of industry experience in test automation, controls, and/or industrial automation.
• Hands-on experience integrating industrial hardware using protocols such as EtherCAT, Modbus TCP/RTU, RS-232/485 serial, or similar standards.
• Experience with at least one modern PLC ecosystem, ideally Beckhoff TwinCAT 3 with structured text under IEC 61131-3, or demonstrated eagerness to develop deep expertise in it.
• Ability to work across the full stack, including electrical-panel design, cabinet wiring, hardware debugging, and control software development.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced startup environment with shifting priorities and end-to-end ownership.

Nice to have

• Strong judgment about when to use real-time PLC code versus higher-level Python orchestration, including understanding of the tradeoffs.
• Experience with custom or in-house control frameworks.
• Advanced EtherCAT expertise, including DC sync, ENI configuration, master implementation, or driver-level work.
• Production experience with TwinCAT 3, structured text, and the broader IEC 61131-3 language suite.
• Experience designing deterministic hard real-time control loops with sub-millisecond cycle times.
• Familiarity with time-series data acquisition and visualization tools such as Grafana and InfluxDB.
• Aerospace experience, particularly spacecraft testing or GSE development; environmental testing such as TVAC, thermal cycling, and vibration testing.
• Hands-on experience with high-pressure gas or fluid systems, propulsion test stands, or other complex multi-subsystem test infrastructure.
• Familiarity with spacecraft qualification standards and related documentation requirements.
• Experience developing safety-related control systems and evaluating risk-reduction solutions.

Culture & Benefits

• Work in an on-site production and test environment building, integrating, and testing spaceflight hardware.
• Collaborate with propulsion, avionics, GNC, and manufacturing functions.
• Opportunity to influence control-system architecture and establish long-term engineering standards.
• Eligible for stock options and/or long-term cash awards.
• Employment is subject to U.S. export-control access requirements and E-Verify employment eligibility verification.