Senior Terrestrial Mechanical Design Engineer, Controls (Aerospace)

Location: On-site in El Segundo, California, United States. Candidates must be U.S. persons authorized to work in the United States and permitted to access export-controlled technology without an export license.

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 systems.

What you will do

• Design, build, maintain, and commission ground support equipment and test systems for flight hardware qualification and manufacturing.
• Develop data acquisition, thermal control, propulsion, gas, liquid, and environmental test systems.
• Integrate mechanical, electrical, fluid, instrumentation, PLC, and industrial communication systems into cohesive test platforms.
• Own test infrastructure end-to-end, including cabinet construction, panel wiring, electrical design, commissioning, documentation, and ongoing support.
• Partner with propulsion, avionics, GNC, and manufacturing teams to deliver reliable infrastructure on aggressive timelines.
• Maintain systems with a target of more than 99% uptime and improve hirify.global’s internal PLC and EtherCAT tooling.

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, plus experience with Altium or comparable schematic design software; familiarity with EPLAN is relevant as hirify.global migrates to it.
• Hands-on experience with high-pressure gas or fluid systems and environmental testing, including TVAC, thermal cycling, and vibration testing.
• Experience developing propulsion test stands or other complex, multi-subsystem test infrastructure.
• Experience integrating industrial hardware using EtherCAT, Modbus TCP/RTU, RS-232/485, or similar protocols.
• Experience with a modern PLC ecosystem, ideally Beckhoff TwinCAT 3 with structured text under IEC 61131-3, or demonstrated eagerness to develop deep expertise.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced startup environment with shifting priorities and end-to-end ownership.

Nice to have

• Aerospace experience, especially spacecraft testing or GSE development.
• Familiarity with spacecraft qualification standards and documentation requirements.
• Experience developing safety-related control systems and reducing safety-related risks.
• Programming experience in low-level firmware or Python.

Culture & Benefits

• Work in an in-house aerospace production facility where vehicles, equipment, and materials are built, integrated, and tested.
• Build thoroughly documented systems with accessible procedures and schematics to support reliable production and engineer ramp-up.
• Eligible for incentives through stock options and/or long-term cash awards.
• Employment is subject to U.S. work authorization, U.S.-person export-control access requirements, and E-Verify verification.