Senior Automation & Controls Engineer (Aerospace)

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

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 Varda’s internal PLC framework and EtherCAT tooling, and contribute to real-time control architecture decisions involving TwinCAT 3 and Linux-based approaches.
• Design electrical panels, wire cabinets, debug hardware, and own control systems end to end.
• Partner with propulsion, avionics, GNC, and manufacturing teams to deliver test infrastructure on aggressive timelines.
• Establish sustainable engineering practices that support maintainable production systems and faster onboarding.

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 with industrial communication protocols such as EtherCAT, Modbus TCP/RTU, RS-232/485 serial, or similar standards.
• Experience with at least one modern PLC ecosystem; Beckhoff TwinCAT 3 with structured text under IEC 61131-3 is preferred, or demonstrated eagerness to develop deep expertise.
• Ability to work across electrical panel design, cabinet wiring, hardware debugging, and control software development.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced startup environment with shifting priorities and end-to-end ownership.
• Must be lawfully authorized to work in the United States and qualify as a U.S. person for access to export-controlled technology.

Nice to have

• Experience choosing between real-time PLC code and higher-level Python orchestration.
• Experience with custom control frameworks, advanced EtherCAT implementation, TwinCAT 3, structured text, and IEC 61131-3.
• Experience with deterministic hard real-time control loops, including sub-millisecond cycle times.
• Experience with time-series data acquisition and visualization tools such as Grafana or InfluxDB.
• Aerospace, spacecraft testing, GSE development, environmental testing, TVAC, thermal cycling, or vibration testing experience.
• Experience with high-pressure gas or fluid systems, propulsion test stands, complex multi-subsystem infrastructure, spacecraft qualification standards, or safety-related control systems.

Culture & Benefits

• Work in an on-site production and office environment where spacecraft, equipment, and materials are built, integrated, and tested.
• Collaborate with teams spanning propulsion, avionics, GNC, and manufacturing.
• Eligibility for incentives through stock options and/or long-term cash awards.
• Employment is subject to U.S. work authorization, export-control access requirements, and E-Verify verification.
• Inclusive equal-opportunity workplace with evaluation based on merit, qualifications, and performance.