Opto-Mechanical Design Engineer (Spacecraft)

Location: Redondo Beach, United States; onsite

Salary: $125,000–$200,000 per year, plus potential stock options and benefits.

Company

hirify.global develops in-space transportation vehicles and spacecraft services for missions beyond Low Earth Orbit, orbital transport, constellation deployment, and precision reentry.

What you will do

• Design opto-mechanical hardware for spacecraft optical systems, including lens barrels, telescope structures, optical benches, detector mounts, mirror mounts, baffles, flexures, and precision alignment features.
• Develop optical mechanisms such as gimbals, focus mechanisms, launch locks, fast-steering mirror interfaces, motorized stages, and pointing assemblies.
• Translate optical prescriptions, lens layouts, ray constraints, detector tolerances, and stray-light requirements into practical mechanical architectures.
• Develop athermalized optical barrels and precision camera or telescope assemblies for star trackers and optical payloads.
• Create CAD models, drawings, tolerance stackups, GD&T, bills of materials, interface control documents, assembly procedures, and test fixtures.
• Support designs from early architecture through detailed design, build, testing, and flight qualification.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Optical Engineering, Physics, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent practical experience.
• At least 3 years of demonstrated experience in mechanical design, precision hardware, opto-mechanical systems, mechanisms, aerospace hardware, or related engineering work.
• Experience with NX, SolidWorks, Creo, CATIA, or similar mechanical design software.
• Understanding of mechanical drawings, GD&T, tolerance analysis, materials, fasteners, manufacturing processes, and assembly constraints.
• Applicants must be U.S. Persons or eligible to obtain a U.S. export license under ITAR/EAR requirements.

Nice to have

• 5+ years designing optical or precision mechanical hardware, spacecraft systems, camera systems, star trackers, EO/IR payloads, laser communication terminals, or precision pointing systems.
• Experience with athermalized optical barrels, CTE matching, thermal compensation, and material selection for optical stability.
• Experience with telescope structures, reflective optics mounting, mirror cells, compact optical assemblies, stray-light baffles, and optical alignment features.
• Experience with gimbals, fast-steering mirrors, voice coils, torque motors, stepper motors, encoders, bearings, launch locks, flexure stages, and deployable or adjustable optical mounts.

Culture & Benefits

• Onsite work within the Avionics department.
• Full-time employment with potential long-term incentives in the form of stock options.
• Medical, vision, and dental coverage.
• Access to a 401(k) retirement plan.
• Work on spacecraft manufacturing and in-space transportation systems.

Hiring process

• Application submission and resume review.
• Introductory phone interview followed by technical phone interviews.
• Onsite interview and offer stage.