Senior Ground Support Mechanical Design Engineer (Aerospace)

Location: On-site in El Segundo, California, United States. U.S. person status and authorization to work in the United States are required due to ITAR-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, reentry capsules, heat shields, satellite buses, and related production and test systems.

What you will do

• Design, build, maintain, and commission ground support equipment and test systems for flight hardware qualification and manufacturing operations.
• Develop data acquisition systems, propulsion test stands, fill carts, thermal control systems, PLC cabinets, and gas and liquid systems.
• Integrate mechanical, electrical, fluid, instrumentation, and industrial control systems into cohesive test platforms.
• Act as the Responsible Engineer for centrifuges, TVACs, propulsion test stands, fill carts, gas benches, water flow stands, and torch test stands.
• Partner with propulsion, avionics, GNC, and manufacturing teams to deliver reliable infrastructure on aggressive timelines and achieve over 99% uptime.
• Read, deploy, and make minor edits to the internal PLC framework and EtherCAT tooling while documenting systems, procedures, and schematics.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering or a related technical field.
• 5+ years of industry experience in mechanical design or industrial automation.
• Extensive experience with SolidWorks, NX CAD, or comparable tools.
• Experience wiring cabinets, PLCs, harnesses, and connectors.
• Experience with Altium or comparable electronic schematic design software; migration to EPLAN is underway.
• Hands-on experience with high-pressure gas or fluid systems.
• Environmental testing experience, including TVAC, thermal cycling, and vibration testing.
• Experience developing propulsion test stands or other complex, multi-subsystem test infrastructure.
• Experience integrating industrial hardware through EtherCAT, Modbus TCP/RTU, RS-232/485 serial, or similar protocols.
• 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 in a fast-paced startup environment with shifting priorities and end-to-end ownership of problems.

Nice to have

• Aerospace experience, particularly spacecraft testing or ground support equipment development.
• Familiarity with spacecraft qualification standards and related documentation requirements.
• Experience developing safety-related control systems and evaluating risk-reduction solutions.
• Programming experience in low-level firmware or Python.

Culture & Benefits

• In-house design, construction, integration, and testing of vehicles, equipment, and materials.
• Collaborative work with propulsion, avionics, GNC, and manufacturing teams.
• Systems are documented with accessible procedures and schematics to support reliable maintenance and onboarding.
• Incentive compensation may include stock options and/or long-term cash awards.
• Inclusive equal-opportunity workplace with merit-based evaluation.