Materials and Process Engineer (Aerospace)

Location: On-site in El Segundo, California, United States

Salary: $181,913–$262,763 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, thermal protection systems, and satellite buses, with vehicles and equipment built, integrated, and tested in-house.

What you will do

• Set technical direction for materials and processes across flight hardware as production scales to concurrent vehicle builds.
• Develop, qualify, control, and maintain special processes for thermal protection systems, coatings, polymers, composites, adhesives, wet chemical processing, corrosion control, and metallic structures.
• Design experiments and pathfinder hardware, characterize materials and processes through mechanical, thermal, chemical, and microstructural testing, and establish statistically based process windows.
• Define requirements for tooling, fixtures, test equipment, cleanliness, contamination control, and material handling.
• Author special process specifications, qualification and validation records, control plans, and supplier requirements.
• Lead RCCAs, MRB activities, failure review boards, and investigations into corrosion, contamination, defects, and other material or process non-conformances.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Materials Science, Metallurgical, Chemical, Mechanical, or a related engineering discipline, or equivalent demonstrated expertise.
• 6+ years of process and materials engineering experience in aerospace, semiconductor, or another high-reliability industry, including flight or safety-critical hardware.
• Experience developing and qualifying processes and materials, supporting first-article builds, and applying standards such as AWS, AMS, ASTM, or similar.
• Experience authoring specifications, design guidance, acceptance criteria, drawing callouts, process qualification records, and control plans for internal teams and suppliers.
• Experience with thermal, chemical, mechanical, and NDE characterization and with defining process windows using DOE, SPC, process capability, measurement system analysis, regression, statistical tolerancing, and material allowables.
• Deep expertise in at least one area including ablatives and TPS, composites, polymers and adhesives, coatings and surface treatment, wet chemical processing and corrosion control, welding metallurgy, heat treat, additive manufacturing, or NDE.
• Experience with aerospace metals including stainless steel, aluminum, titanium, and nickel alloys, as well as heat treatment, welding, brazing, and finishing.
• Experience with corrosion mechanisms, chemical compatibility, wet chemical processes, bath chemistry, water quality, precision cleaning, cleanliness verification, and hazardous or reactive fluids.
• Experience leading RCCAs, failure analysis, material dispositions, PFMEAs, and cross-functional investigations using methods such as fractography, metallography, SEM/EDS, and chemical analysis.
• Experience setting materials and process requirements for space environments, including outgassing, contamination control, electrical bonding and grounding, thermal cycling, and UV exposure.
• Strong technical writing skills for specifications, test reports, and investment cases; ability to make decisions without established infrastructure, influence cross-functional material decisions, and hire and mentor engineers.
• Must be physically able to regularly lift 25 lbs., bend, stoop, and stand for extended periods while working directly with flight hardware.
• Must be a U.S. person authorized to work in the United States and access export-controlled technology.

Nice to have

• M.S. or Ph.D. in Materials Science, Chemical Engineering, or a related discipline, or AMPP/NACE certification.
• Experience with ablative, thermal protection, and thermal barrier materials for reentry, hypersonic, or propulsion applications.
• Experience with scaled polymer and composite processing, spacecraft thermal control and finishing systems, wet process lines, high-purity water systems, and EHS compliance.
• Experience with high-test peroxide, strong oxidizers, hypergols, oxygen-service cleaning, and oxidizer-compatible materials.
• Experience with pharmaceutical or bioprocess materials, accelerated corrosion testing, advanced statistical methods, and advanced characterization such as XRD, CT, or XPS.
• Experience scaling processes to production rates, qualifying and auditing special-process suppliers, and building materials and process functions and laboratories.
• Recognized subject-matter expertise demonstrated through technical direction, standards roles, publications, patents, or standards-committee participation.

Culture & Benefits

• Work directly with design engineers, technicians, and suppliers across the materials and processes used to manufacture spacecraft.
• Build materials and process infrastructure, including approved materials and processes lists, materials usage agreements, and in-house laboratory capabilities.
• Work in Varda’s El Segundo offices and production facility, where vehicles, equipment, and materials are built, integrated, and tested.
• Eligible for incentives through stock options and/or long-term cash awards.
• Employment is subject to U.S. work authorization and export-control access requirements; Varda participates in E-Verify.