Senior Mechanical Engineer - Spacecraft Mission Mechanical Lead
South Park Commons is a community and early-stage venture firm that helps talented founders and technologists move from an idea (-1) to a company (0). It runs a no-cost, no-equity residency program for ideation and exploration, and provides $1M to $10M in funding for founders ready to build venture-scale companies.
About South Park Commons
South Park Commons operates a talent-dense community of technical founders, researchers, and domain experts who test ideas, find collaborators, and build conviction on what to build and how to build it. Its offering spans two stages: a six-month Residency with no cost or equity focused on ideation and exploration, and Funding of $1M to $10M for members ready to build venture-scale companies. Beyond capital, SPC provides learning forums on frontier topics (embodied AI, reinforcement learning, energy-efficient computing, AI in biotech), live programming with industry leaders, partner collaboration from a team of former founders and operators, social scaffolding to counter the isolation of early company building, and up to $1M in credits and perks from partners like Anthropic, OpenAI, Microsoft, GCP, and AWS. SPC has spaces in San Francisco, New York, and Bengaluru, and its community has produced companies such as Render, Luma Labs, Pilot, Comun, Anthropic, Unit21, and Profound.
Skills
About the Role
You'll serve as the Mission Mechanical Lead on upcoming spacecraft missions, working closely with customers and system engineers to design solutions that meet mission requirements. You'll own the mechanical direction of the mission from requirements definition through installation on the launch vehicle, collaborating directly with customers and Muon's systems engineering team, and pulling in structural, thermal, electrical, and other stakeholders at the right times to deliver a robust satellite on time. You'll need to work onsite at the Mountain View and San Jose locations.
Requirements
- 8+ years of experience designing, building, and testing high reliability hardware
- Demonstrated proficiency leading mechanical design for spacecraft or complex electromechanical systems
- Experience technically leading or managing a small team of engineers and/or technicians
- Proficiency in CAD (SolidWorks preferred) for medium-to-large assembly design and management
- Mastery of drawings, GD&T, BOMs, FAIs, tolerance budgets, and mass budgets
- Experience with ECO/DCO processes and PLM systems
- Extensive documentation capabilities: build procedures, test plans, design trades, DOEs
- Experience managing external vendors for part prototyping and development
- Excellent communication, presentation, and cross-functional coordination skills
- B.S. or higher in Mechanical Engineering or related field
Responsibilities
- Develop a deep understanding of Muon's spacecraft platforms and capabilities, and tailor them to mission needs
- Design, build, and test mission specific components and payloads
- Create, analyze, and refine full spacecraft mechanical designs in SolidWorks
- Design and document new, reusable components for Muon's common platform
- Lead the mechanical portion of internal and external design reviews
- Interface with structural and thermal engineers to define and run analysis
- Lead environmental testing campaigns such as vibration and TVAC
- Write new documentation and build procedures unique to the mission
Benefits
- Equity compensation
- Medical insurance
- Dental insurance
- Vision insurance
- 401k retirement plan
- Short & long term disability insurance
- Life insurance
- Three weeks paid vacation for new employees
- 12 paid holidays
- Unlimited sick time
- Paid parental leave