Senior Mechanical Design Engineer

Turning Space into a Transportation Layer for Earth

Who We Are:

Eras of humanity can often be defined by a dominant transportation mode - horse drawn carriage, ocean faring boats, or aircraft. These were spurred by a small group of people rigorously focused on building technology to achieve faster access to more of the world.  We seek to usher in a new era of humanity defined by universal access to the whole globe free of borders and the presence of a routine way from space to Earth. To do this, we are building highly maneuverable re-entry vehicles that can loiter in orbit before precision landing back on Earth.

What You’ll Do:

Inversion’s reentry vehicles are pushing the limits of hypersonic flight and our Thermal Protection Systems (TPS) are critical to success. As a Mechanical Design Engineer, you will work alongside Inversion’s aerothermal and structures teams to design, manufacture and integrate a high performance, cost effective TPS for Inversion’s lifting-body reentry vehicles. In this role, you will:

• Design cutting edge thermal protection systems for Inversion’s Arc vehicle

• Organize development and qualification testing of TPS materials and installations

• Develop accelerated TPS integration methods to reduce manufacturing time

• Develop the analysis and design workflow of the flight heatshields for flight vehicles

• Explore trades between TPS materials and manufacturing methods

• Work with outside vendors, suppliers, and testing resources to bring new materials, capabilities, and processes in-house at Inversion

Required Qualifications:

• Minimum of Bachelor’s degree in Material Science, Materials Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or Chemical Engineering OR equivalent experience in a relevant field

• Typically, 5+ years of professional experience working with, formulating, or producing materials for extreme temperature environments (Reentry, Rocketry, Hypersonics, Propulsion, Nuclear Power, etc.)

• Experience using Siemens NX or similar CAD software

• Proven ability to work effectively in a fast-paced environment

• This role is onsite at our Playa Vista, California office

Desired Qualifications:

• Professional experience in design, testing, and integration of thermal protection systems for hypersonic or reentry flight vehicles

• Professional experience working with, formulating, or producing ablative or ceramic TPS

• Strong understanding of the fundamentals behind aerothermal heating of reentry vehicles, TPS production, and thermal environments of extreme temperature applications

• Prior experience working in startups and/or small independent teams

Our office headquarters is located in Playa Vista, CA. This position requires in office presence.

The California annual base salary for this role is currently $150,000-$170,000.  Pay Grades are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data.  Individual pay will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: interviews and an assessment of several factors that are unique to each candidate, job-related skills, relevant education and experience, certifications, abilities of the candidate and internal equity.

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ITAR Compliance:

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.

Equal Employment Opportunity:

Inversion provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, veteran status, or disability.

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