Manager, Solar Engineering (Aerospace)

Location: Los Angeles, CA, United States. The role involves access to ITAR-controlled information and requires the hire to be a U.S. person or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export-control license.

Base salary: $150,000–$250,000 per year, plus equity.

Company

hirify.global develops and mass-produces high-power satellite platforms for commercial and U.S. government missions from low Earth orbit to deep space.

What you will do

• Build, scale, and lead the Solar Engineering organization across design, manufacturing, process, and automation.
• Own the solar hardware technical baseline from array and module design through process qualification, tooling, automation infrastructure, and flight-ready production.
• Take hardware and mechanisms from conceptual design through qualification and on-orbit operations through testing, analysis, and iterative refinement.
• Identify technologies that improve production rate, reliability, and unit economics.
• Set the technical and operational direction for solar hardware design and high-rate manufacturing.
• Establish product requirements, processes, standards, and cross-functional alignment, including executive-level communication on technical direction, risk, and execution.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in mechanical, aerospace, or another relevant engineering discipline.
• 5+ years of experience with mechanical and/or electromechanical design and analysis in solar or electromechanical systems.
• 1+ years of experience building and leading large, multidisciplinary engineering teams, including managing managers and developing senior individual contributors across multiple functions.
• Experience owning a complex engineering function end-to-end through development, design iteration, production ramp, and sustained delivery.
• Executive-level communication and stakeholder-management skills.
• Experience with CAD or FEA software packages.
• Must be a U.S. person under ITAR or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export-control license.

Nice to have

• Experience leading solar-array engineering for space applications, including module interconnect processes, module lamination, integrated PVA construction, and flight-array integration.
• Experience scaling multidisciplinary engineering organizations from early development to full-rate production in high-reliability or aerospace environments.
• Hands-on experience with robotics, vision-guided assembly, or electromechanical manufacturing controls.
• Experience designing, building, and testing moving mechanical assemblies for aerospace applications.
• Experience with NASA-STD-5017, SMC-S-016, and GSFC-STD-7000 for in-space moving mechanism assemblies.
• Experience applying GD&T, plus strong organizational, written, oral, and cross-disciplinary communication skills.

Culture & Benefits

• Full-time employment in a high-growth, Series D-funded space company.
• Comprehensive benefits including paid time off, medical, dental and vision coverage, life insurance, and paid parental leave.
• Equity in the company.
• Non-traditional career backgrounds are encouraged, and preferred qualifications are not required in full.
• Reasonable accommodations are available for applications and interviews.